Accused of making starvation a 'bargaining chip,' Israel launches another wave of strikes on Gaza

Israel accused of “unashamedly” imposing inhumane conditions on Palestinians, including the risk of famine, launched a wave of deadly strikes across Gaza.

Hours after Israel was accused of making “starvation a bargaining chip” in Gaza, its military launched a wave of deadly strikes across the enclave, killing at least 70 people, Palestinian health officials said

“A number of victims are still under the rubble and on the roads, unable to be reached by ambulances and civil defense crews,” the Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement. 

The strikes came less than 24 hours after United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher called an Israel-initiated and U.S.-backed humanitarian aid distribution plan for Gaza a “cynical sideshow” and “a deliberate distraction.”

At a meeting of the U.N. Security Council, Fletcher said the plan was a “fig leaf for further violence and displacement” of Palestinians in the war-torn enclave, adding that the international community should reflect on what it will tell future generations about what actions were taken “to stop the 21st century atrocity to which we bear daily witness in Gaza.”

Destruction inside Nasser hospital following an Israeli strike on Tuesday.Eyad Baba / AFP via Getty ImagesNo humanitarian aid has been delivered to Gaza since March 2, and the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a leading international authority on the severity of hunger crises, has warned that half a million people, or around a quarter of the enclave’s population, face starvation.