Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez warned that hunger is increasingly being weaponized in modern conflicts, condemning attacks on food infrastructure and cautioning that wars in the Middle East are deepening global food insecurity and humanitarian suffering.
Speaking at the Food Security and Nutrition Under Pressure: Consequences of the Conflict in the Middle East event during Rome Nutrition Week, Sanchez said more than 700 million people worldwide face food insecurity while millions of children suffer from malnutrition.
"Hunger today is exactly that: a weapon,” Sanchez said, describing it as "a very cheap weapon” and "a blatant violation of international humanitarian law.”
He said more than 20,000 attacks against markets, farmland, and food distribution systems had been recorded over the past eight years, specifically referring to Gaza, where "some seek to win a war by starving an entire people into submission.”
Sanchez also criticized Israel's treatment of members of a humanitarian flotilla detained last week while attempting to deliver aid.
