<\/p>\n
To learn more about Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council and the Question of Palestine, click here to visit the dedicated webpage.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n 05 September 2025<\/p>\n UN experts* today issued an urgent appeal for an emergency meeting of the UN General Assembly, warning that the international community must act immediately before the 17 September-deadline for demanding an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestine, as genocide and a man-made famine unfold in Gaza.<\/p>\n \u201cSilence and inaction are not an option in the face of mass atrocities,\u201d the experts said.<\/p>\n \u201cIsrael must immediately end its obstruction of safe, effective and dignified humanitarian assistance. But lifting these restrictions alone will not be enough to save Gaza\u2019s devastated population. What is urgently required is an end to Israel\u2019s siege and the declaration of an immediate ceasefire,\u201d the experts said.<\/p>\n \u201cAt this critical moment, the world needs the General Assembly \u2014 the highest body of the United Nations \u2014 to take decisive leadership and act to prevent further catastrophe,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n After the formal confirmation of famine by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification<\/a> (IPC), the humanitarian emergency has reached intolerable proportions, with an entire population facing starvation under siege as the Israeli military advances into Gaza City, which is overcrowded with more than a million displaced Palestinians.<\/p>\n Three hundred and sixty-one Palestinians have died due to malnutrition, including 130 children. Thirteen of them, including 3 children, have died in the past 24 hours.<\/p>\n \u201cThe horrors of death by starvation will intensify if Israel is not stopped. Already, half a million people in Gaza are starving. Have State authorities become so numb to these numbers \u2014 so desensitised, once again, to the systematic breaches of our collective moral and legal obligations?\u201d the experts said.<\/p>\n The famine in Gaza, deliberately engineered and perpetuated by Israel \u2013 and enabled by private and security actors \u2013 is an affront to humanity, the experts said.<\/p>\n \u201cA State responsible for creating genocidal conditions aimed at destroying Palestinians in Gaza as a group by also starving them cannot and shall not be entrusted to control access, distribution, or supervision of humanitarian aid,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n They recalled that under international humanitarian law, occupying powers have binding obligations to guarantee the survival of the population under their control. \u201cThis is precisely what Israel is not doing,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe deliberate obstruction of food, water, medicine, shelter and other relief \u2013 compounded by deadly attacks on civilians, including women and children, gathering at aid distribution points, and repeated forced displacement \u2013 has transformed hunger into a weapon of war,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n Israel must be held accountable and not be given further excuses to escape accountability, the experts said.<\/p>\n They noted that more than 2,000 Palestinians have been killed at distribution sites \u2013 70 % in the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation areas\u2013 in recent months, often in incidents involving indiscriminate or targeted fire. Several Palestinians have been forcibly disappeared from the distribution sites.<\/p>\n \u201cThis reality shows that existing mechanisms have utterly failed, and reliance on the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation constitutes a blatant violation of article 59 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and involved international crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe General Assembly must act without delay to stop the machinery of death,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n The experts called on the General Assembly to convene an emergency meeting to:<\/p>\n \u201cThe situation in Gaza is intolerable and unconscionable,\u201d the experts said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe General Assembly must uphold the duty of the United Nations to respect international humanitarian law and protect civilians, end the violence, and guarantee that life-saving assistance reaches the people of Gaza without obstruction or delay. Anything less makes the international community complicit in these grave violations.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The experts:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n
\n