GENEVA (Palestine Foundation Information Center)The UN’s top anti-racism body has called for immediate humanitarian access to Gaza in a bid to avoid “catastrophic consequences” for its civilian population, who are facing famine, disease, and death.
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which convened in Geneva for its latest session on Friday, issued its statement hours after the World Central Kitchen announced it was forced to shut down its remaining food kitchens across Gaza due to the Israeli blockade.
“The food exhaustion in Gaza, combined with the widespread destruction or serious damage to water and electricity infrastructure, is 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,” CERD said.
CERD also voiced serious concern over the escalating 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, CERD recalled its 2024 decision, which raised serious concerns regarding Israel’s obligations under international law to prevent war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
CERD also drew attention to the broader deterioration of conditions across the occupied Palestinian territories, including east Jerusalem and the West Bank, where “patterns of mass displacement and settler violence are increasingly mirroring those in Gaza.”
CERD called on 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.”
Furthermore, it called on all countries that are parties to “the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination” to fulfill their international obligations by taking immediate and appropriate measures to prevent further escalation of hostility and to ensure the protection of civilians.
All countries have to “cooperate to bring an end to the violations that are taking place and to prevent war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, including by ceasing any military assistance,” CERD urged.
The World Food Program previously raised the alarm over the total collapse of food aid operations in the besieged and war-ravaged enclave. In late April, the UN food agency announced that all of its food reserves in Gaza had run out as a result of the ongoing closure of border crossings.
