ISTANBUL

The UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) said Friday that mass famine in the Gaza Strip is “constructed and deliberate.”

It said the Israeli- and US-backed aid distribution mechanism, known as the “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation,” or GHF, serves “military and political objectives.”

“A constructed and deliberate mass starvation. Today, more children died, their bodies emaciated by hunger,” it said in a statement.

It stressed that “the flawed distribution system (GHF) is not designed to address the humanitarian crisis.”

UNRWA emphasized that the system “is serving military and political objectives. It’s cruel as it takes more lives than it saves lives.”

The agency explained that under the system, Israel controls “all aspects of humanitarian access, whether outside or within Gaza.”

Since May 27, Tel Aviv began implementing an aid distribution plan via the so-called “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation,” a mechanism backed by Israel and the US but rejected by the UN and major humanitarian organizations.

UNRWA noted that during a previous ceasefire in 2025, which began in January and was later abandoned by Israel in March, it succeeded to “reverse the deepening hunger.”

The agency added: “Today, UNRWA alone has the equivalent of 6,000 trucks of food and medical assistance stuck in Egypt and Jordan.”

UNRWA has repeatedly called for the reactivation of the UN-supervised aid distribution mechanism to help ease the famine crisis in Gaza.

Since March 2, Israel has backtracked on implementing a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal with Hamas and has kept Gaza’s crossings shut, leaving hundreds of aid trucks stranded at the borders.

Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, Israel has pursued a brutal offensive on Gaza since late 2023, killing more than 59,600 Palestinians, most of them women and children. Deaths by starvation have climbed in recent days due to a months-long blockade and poor distribution of aid by the controversial GHF.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.​​​​​​​

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.