Shafaqna English– UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) today calls for immediate humanitarian access and a lasting ceasefire in Gaza.
The Committee, currently convening in Geneva for its latest session, which ends today, issued its statement hours after the World Central Kitchen announced it was forced to shut down its remaining soup kitchens across Gaza due to a lack of food.
The World Food Programme previously raised the alarm of the total collapse of food aid operations in the besieged enclave. In late April, the UN’s food agency announced that all of its food reserves in Gaza had been depleted, and ongoing restrictions at key border crossings had halted the entry of additional supplies.
The food exhaustion in Gaza, combined with the widespread destruction or serious damage to water and electricity infrastructure, are “placing the civilian population—especially vulnerable groups such as children, women, the elderly, and persons with disabilities—at imminent risk of famine, disease, and death,” the Committee said.
The Committee also raised grave alarm at the intensification of Israeli military operations across the Gaza Strip since early March, citing indiscriminate bombardments and expanded ground incursions, “which have dramatically worsened the humanitarian crisis and severely endangered the civilian population.”
Invoking its early warning and urgent action procedures, the Committee recalled its 2024 decision, which raised serious concerns regarding Israel’s obligations under international law to prevent war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
The Committee urged the State of Israel to “lift all barriers to humanitarian access, allow the immediate and unimpeded entry of humanitarian aid, and cease all actions obstructing the provision of essential services to the civilian population in Gaza.”
Source: The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights