UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has slammed the international community for turning a blind eye to the suffering of Palestinians starving in Gaza, calling it a "moral crisis that challenges the global conscience."
"I cannot explain the level of indifference and inaction we see by too many in the international community, the lack of compassion, the lack of truth, the lack of humanity," Guterres told Amnesty International's global assembly via videolink.
"This is not just a humanitarian crisis. It is a moral crisis that challenges the global conscience. We will continue to speak out at every opportunity."
Meanwhile, the International Crisis Group (ICG) has issued a stark warning that Israel's aid blockade is pushing Gaza towards mass starvation and catastrophic loss of life, urging both immediate humanitarian access and a ceasefire.
"Israel is starving Gaza," the group said in a statement, accusing Israeli authorities of imposing "draconian restrictions on humanitarian aid and commercial deliveries" since March.
Describing the situation as "predicted," the group said, "Israel must end its siege immediately. Every truck matters. Every calorie counts. But opening the gates is only the beginning: only a ceasefire can alleviate the humanitarian catastrophe engulfing Gaza."
It also criticised the controversial, US-backed, so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid as ineffective and harmful.
"The new ostensibly ‘Hamas-free’ GHF model leaves Gaza’s weakest and poorest to starve," it said, describing chaotic food distributions where Israeli troops have repeatedly opened fire on the aid seekers, killing more than 1,000 of them since May.
Highlighting alarming health data, the group said that UN nutrition screenings of 15,000 children in Gaza in July have assessed over 16 percent as being acutely malnourished, crossing the UN's famine threshold.
"The lack of a ceasefire provides no excuse for this starvation policy," it said and urged, "The machinery of death must be stopped, not merely slowed."