Some Council members proposed action plans to potentially end hostilities beginning with an immediate ceasefire and hostage releases while Algeria’s ambassador accused Israel of using starvation as a tool of war.

Well over half a million Gazans are just a step away from famine, said senior UN humanitarians, briefing the Security Council Tuesday on food security in the stricken enclave. The deputy head of UN aid coordination told ambassadors that famine is “almost inevitable” unless aid can be scaled up immediately.

The dire aid situation and increasing threat of famine was front and centre during an impassioned discussion in the chamber, led off by a detailed UN humanitarian update via videolink.

A trio of briefers from the key UN aid agencies issued grim warnings to the Council on the situation facing civilians on the ground in Gaza.

“If nothing changes, a famine is imminent in northern Gaza,” warned the World Food Programme (WFP) deputy executive director as at least 576,000 people are “facing catastrophic levels of deprivation and starvation” across the enclave, according to deputy chief of the UN humanitarian agency, OCHA

FAO’s deputy director said that “essential first steps in eliminating a risk of famine” are a cessation of hostilities and restoration of humanitarian space to deliver lifesaving aid and restored basic services, like water and electricity

Some Council members proposed action plans to potentially end hostilities beginning with an immediate ceasefire and hostage releases while Algeria’s ambassador accused Israel of using starvation as a tool of war.

You cannot stay silent: Arab Group

On behalf of the Arab Group, Tunisia Permanent Representative Tarek Ladeb said the spectre of famine looms in Gaza because of the inability of the international community to agree on an immediate ceasefire and the stubbornness of Israel, the occupying power.

Hundreds of humanitarian aid trucks are piled up along the entry points without being able to enter the Gaza. This blockade silently starves and deprives the Palestinian people of all means of survival in flagrant violation of international law and international humanitarian law, he said.

The international community and the Security Council cannot remain silent any longer.

He told ambassadors the Arab Group reiterates the need to adopt an immediate ceasefire and to put an end to the plan of forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.

The group also insists on the essential role UNRWA plays on the ground and warns against any attempt to broaden the mandate of the United Nations coordinator to the detriment of the Palestine refugee relief agency.

Plans to open more border crossings: Israel

Israel’s Deputy Permanent Representative, Brett Jonathan Miller, said his delegation is committed to improving humanitarian assistance in Gaza, easing the entry of aid at the Kerem Shalom and Rafah crossings, with further border crossing openings also under discussion.

Indeed, there is “no limit” to the amount of aid that can be sent to the population of Gaza, he said, noting that most aid requests are approved.

“These are the facts; no one can claim otherwise,” he said, adding that 20 bakeries in Gaza now produce more than two million pita breads a day.

Claims made to the contrary inside the Council Chamber are just attempts to propagate Hamas lies and to distract attention away from the inability to efficiently distribute aid, he continued.

Israel is not holding up the trucks waiting at the borders, he said, adding that, clearly, the delays in aid delivery are the UN’s fault. 

In this vein, he said the problem of aid diversion in Gaza cannot be ignored. For its part, Israel will continue to demand the release of all hostages, he said, calling on the Security Council to do everything in its power to ensure their safety and wellbeing.

Famine already underway: Palestine

Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine Riyad Mansour told ambassadors that in reality, a famine is underway in Gaza and getting worse every day that Israel carries on its “criminal aggression”.

“We must stop for a moment and consider what this truly means,” he said.

“What it means to forage for food in the rubble, sand and trash, to eat animal feed or food ravaged by rats.”

He said Israel was the architect of this human and humanitarian catastrophe, which it has purposely designed to collectively punish Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians. 

That this catastrophic famine and genocide has been allowed to happen at all and continue for this long “brings shame on all of us, not least this Security Council”, Mr. Mansour added.

Israel’s weaponization of food to punish the Palestinian people is not a secret. It was declared months ago, in October 2023 by the highest-ranking Israeli Government and military officials, some of whom publicly stated that such policies would hasten the decline of humanitarian conditions and provoke a mass exodus from Gaza or a so-called “voluntary migration” of this “demographic threat”.

“This Council must uphold its responsibilities,” he said. 

Rectifying the current abhorrent situation requires three immediate steps: a ceasefire now to halt the Israeli aggression; the unimpeded, accelerated delivery of humanitarian aid at scale throughout all of Gaza; and accountability measures for all the war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by Israel.