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In an address at a UN Security Council emergency meeting on the "situation in the Middle East, including the Palestine Question," convened by Algeria, Bendjama said that "while the international community celebrates today the World Food Day, Palestinians in Gaza are struggling to find food, their present marked by suffering and deprivation and their future uncertain."
He underlined that the briefing presented during the session "lays plain the stark reality of how the Israeli occupying authorities are not merely disregarding international humanitarian law, but are trampling upon the very essence of human decency" as for over a year now, the Palestinian people, especially those in Gaza, have endured suffering beyond imagination."
Algeria's UN permanent representative stressed that "the sadistic impulses of those responsible within the Israeli authorities know no bounds when it comes to inflicting torment upon the Palestinian civilians."
Ambassador Bendjama said Palestinian "civilians must not be a military target, as they are protected by the international law, and the Israeli occupying power should fulfil its obligation in this regard," especially as "the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is explicitly prohibited under international humanitarian law."
"This prohibition extends to depriving civilians of objects necessary for survival and impeding relief supplies."
With respect to the second poliomyelitis vaccination campaign that began on October 14th in Gaza, and which "reached 157,000 Palestinian children in the two first days," the Algerian ambassador wondered: "how is it possible that we can vaccinate these children, yet we cannot feed them?"
"How can we secure trucks transporting vaccines, but not those carrying essential food?"
"This is not a collateral damage, but a deliberate calculated Israeli policy of starvation," Algeria's UN representative said.
The Algerian diplomate pointed out that the ICJ in its provisional measures ordered the Zionist entity, the occupying power, to, "take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip," and despite Security Council Resolution 2728, which explicitly "reiterates its demand for the lifting of all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale," the response from "the Israeli occupying power has been nothing short of disdainful: closure of crossing points, increased restrictions on access, and the immoral use of starvation as a method of warfare."
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