UN aid chief decries ‘shameful man-made famine’ in Gaza

The United Nations’ under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, Martin Griffiths, decries the war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s October 7 massacre, as a “betrayal of humanity.”

In a statement on the eve of the six-month anniversary of the war, the outgoing humanitarian official calls for a “collective determination that there be a reckoning for this betrayal of humanity.”

“For the people of Gaza, the past six months of war have brought death, devastation and now the immediate prospect of a shameful man-made famine,” he says.

“For the people affected by the lasting horror of the October 7 attacks, it has been six months of grief and torment,” he adds.

The end of this war is so long overdue.

It is not enough for six months of war to be a moment of remembrance and mourning.

It must also spur a collective determination that there be a reckoning for this betrayal of humanity. pic.twitter.com/p8TMxu0mf1

— Tom Fletcher (@UNReliefChief) April 6, 2024

The war in Gaza erupted after Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages, mostly civilians, many amid horrific acts of brutality and sexual assault.