Gaza: Palestinian UN envoy blasts Israel for deliberately blocking aid

Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, blasted Israel on Tuesday for its continued blockade in the Gaza Strip.

Israel began blocking all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza after a ceasefire deal ended more than 10 weeks ago.

“Israel has been openly and brazenly blocking humanitarian aid for over two months now — this is engineered starvation,” Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, told the U.N. Security Council.

“It is the most inhumane form of torture and killing.”

Danny Danon, Israel's Ambassador to the U.N., responded to the criticism by reiterating the country's claim the aid was being used to "prop up" Hamas.

“Israel will not accept a humanitarian mechanism that props up the Hamas terror organization that butchered our people in their homes and communities.”

Famine

Food security experts said Monday that Gaza will likely fall into famine if Israel doesn’t lift its blockade and stop its military campaign.

Nearly half a million Palestinians are facing possible starvation, living in “catastrophic” levels of hunger, and 1 million others can barely get enough food, according to findings by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a leading international authority on the severity of hunger crises.