Israel ‘Intentionally’ Starving People of Gaza, Ignoring ICJ Orders to Stop: UN Official

Tuesday, 22 July 2025 9:46 AM

Palestinian children queue with pots to receive meals from a charity kitchen in Gaza City on July 14, 2025. (Photo by AFP)

The head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestine says the Israeli regime is intentionally starving the people of Gaza and ignoring orders from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to stop.

“People in Gaza who have survived bombs and bullets are starving. Yesterday, Israeli forces again fired on crowds waiting for aid trucks. Hospitals report >80 people killed,” Jonathan Whittall wrote on his X account on Tuesday.

He added that “2.1 million people in Gaza are crammed into just 12% of the territory, wasting away without enough food or clean water to survive.”

“This death and suffering is preventable. And if it’s preventable, but still happening, then that suggests to me that it’s intentional,” he noted.

He underscored that more than a year ago, Israel was ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) “to not deliberately inflict on Palestinians conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction in whole or in part.”

According to Whittall, Israel was also ordered to immediately facilitate large-scale humanitarian aid into Gaza through additional land crossings in close cooperation with the UN.

“Yet Gaza is being starved. Malnutrition is soaring. Hospitals lack essential supplies and are collapsing under relentless waves of casualties,” he noted, adding that “a ceasefire is overdue, but that alone won’t end this atrocity. All orders of the court must be implemented.”

This comes as Israel on Sunday withdrew the residency permit of Whittall who has been an outspoken critic of the Israeli regime’s genocidal actions and has condemned the humanitarian conditions in Gaza.

UNRWA says 1 million Gaza children are starving to death due to the continuous Israeli blockade.

Since the Israeli regime launched its genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza in October 2023, the territory's Health Ministry has reported numerous cases of children dying from starvation and dehydration.

Through its blockade of Gaza, Israel has imposed sweeping restrictions on the entry of food, medicine, fuel, and humanitarian relief. Human rights organizations say the blockade is central to Israel’s ongoing campaign of genocide in the Palestinian territory.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands more are at risk of death due to widespread food insecurity and the collapse of healthcare services.

According to Gaza’s health ministry, the genocidal war has killed more than 59,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and left over 142,000 others injured.