Benjamin Netanyahu has defended his plan to take control of Gaza City in the face of widespread international outrage, even as senior UN officials warned that the move risked unleashing \u201canother calamity\u201d on a territory already experiencing \u201cstarvation, pure and simple\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a rare press conference with foreign journalists in Jerusalem, the Israeli prime minister said the plan, signed off last week by the security cabinet to criticism both at home and abroad, was \u201cthe best way to end the war and the best way to end it speedily.\u201d<\/p>\n
But during an emergency weekend session of the UN security council in New York, there were repeated warnings that rather than end the 22-month war, the move would exacerbate an already dire humanitarian situation<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIf these plans are implemented, they will likely trigger another calamity in Gaza<\/a>, reverberating across the region and causing further forced displacement, killings, and destruction,\u201d said UN assistant secretary general, Miroslav Jenca.<\/p>\n Amid the heated rhetoric, Gaza\u2019s health ministry said that five more people, including two children, had died of malnutrition-related causes, bringing the number of children who have died from such causes to 100. Including adults, the total death toll from malnutrition stands at 217, the ministry says.<\/p>\n Ramesh Rajasingham, Ocha\u2019s coordination director, told the security council meeting: \u201cThis is no longer a looming hunger crisis \u2013 this is starvation, pure and simple.\u201d<\/p>\n Protestors outside the UN headquarters in New York as the security council held an emergency meeting on the situation in Gaza on Sunday. Photograph: John Lamparski\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Israel has imposed a blockade and restrictions on aid entering the territory, but in his press conference Netanyahu said it was \u201ccompletely false\u201d that his government was pursuing a \u201cstarvation policy\u201d. He acknowledged hunger, and problems with the food distribution system run by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), but accused the media of \u201clies\u201d about the scale of the problem.<\/p>\n A few hours before he spoke, at least 26 Palestinians were killed while seeking aid in Gaza, hospitals and witnesses said. They included 15 killed while waiting for aid trucks close to the newly built Morag corridor that separates the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, according to Nasser hospital.<\/p>\n A further six were killed while waiting for aid in northern Gaza near the Zikim crossing, according to Gaza\u2019s health ministry and Shifa hospital in Gaza City.<\/p>\n According to the UN, more than 1,370 Palestinians have been killed since 27 May while seeking food. Netanyahu did not take responsibility for the killings and said, without providing evidence, that \u201ca lot of the firing was done by Hamas\u201d. The Israeli military has repeatedly claimed Hamas is stealing aid, despite the European Commission finding no reports<\/a> of this.<\/p>\n Except on organised and controlled \u201cembeds\u201d of a few hours alongside Israeli soldiers, international journalists have not been allowed into Gaza since the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023, when about 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, were killed and more than 250 people were taken hostage.<\/p>\n