Michael Fakhri, UN special rapporteur on the right to food, who sounded the alarm in early 2024, says: ‘Israel is starving Gaza. It’s genocide’
The UN expert who first warned that Israel was orchestrating a campaign of deliberate mass starvation in Gaza more than 500 days ago, has said that governments and corporations cannot claim to be surprised at the horror now unfolding.
“Israel has built the most efficient starvation machine you can imagine. So while it’s always shocking to see people being starved, no one should act surprised. All the information has been out in the open since early 2024,” Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, told the Guardian.
“Israel is starving Gaza. It’s genocide. It’s a crime against humanity. It’s a war crime. I have been repeating it and repeating it and repeating it, I feel like Cassandra,” said Fakhri, referring to the Greek mythological figure whose warnings and predictions were ignored.
On 9 October 2023 – two days after the deadly Hamas attack – Israel’s then defense minister, Yoav Gallant, declared a “complete siege” of Gaza and said he would halt the supply of electricity, food, water and fuel. By December 2023, Gazans accounted for 80% of the people in the world experiencing catastrophic hunger, according to UN and international aid agency figures.
