[IsraelTimes] A joint statement from all United Nations Security Council members except the United States says the famine in Gaza is a “manmade crisis” and calls for an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire, the release of all hostages held by Hamas and other groups, a substantive surge of aid throughout Gaza, and for Israel to immediately and unconditionally lift all restrictions on aid delivery.
“Famine in Gaza must be stopped immediately,” the statement reads. “Time is of the essence. The humanitarian emergency must be addressed without delay and Israel must reverse course.”
It warns that the use of starvation as a weapon of war is banned under international humanitarian law. Israel denies deliberately starving Gazans.
At a Security Council meeting earlier, acting US Ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea questioned the credibility and integrity of a report finding that Gaza is suffering a famine, saying it “doesn’t pass the test on either.”
“We all recognize that hunger is a real issue in Gaza and that there are significant humanitarian needs which must be met. Addressing those needs is a priority for the United States,” she told the 15-member council.gp
Former hostage tells UN Security Council of sexual assault, starvation, captivity in struck hospital
[IsraelTimes] Former hostage Ilana Gritzewsky tells the UN Security Council of begging her captors not to rape her, describing starvation, beatings and other horrifying conditions she was kept in for 55 days.
“On the way to Gaza, when they started to touch me and sexually abuse me, I passed out physically and mentally. I couldn’t handle it anymore,” she says in testimony to the world body, according to a transcript published by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. “I had to beg not to be raped, telling them I was on my period… I didn’t know exactly what had been done to my body in those lost minutes when I wasn’t conscious. But my soul already knew: nothing would ever be the same. I was suffering from a fractured jaw, a broken pelvis, ear damage from the explosions, and a burned leg.”
Gritzewsky, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz alongside her partner Matan Zangauker, who is one of 50 hostages that remain in Gaza, says she lost 12 kilograms (26.5 lbs.) while in Gaza before being released during a shortu ceasefire in November 2023.
“When it was time to eat, they took a lot of food to their room. They had meat, rice, vegetables. At the same time, they left us with our meal, which contained sometimes as little as 10 chick peas or a piece of dry flat bread, which wasn’t always well-cooked.”
She says her captors, who would subject her and other captives to cruel interrogations, were dressed not as Hamas fighters but as civilians, including one who claimed to be a teacher and another who said they were a lawyer.
She says during her captivity, she and other hostages were held for a time in Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
“They took us through the back entrance and walked us past all the civilians. In the hospital, there was an area which was closed off and used only by Hamas, with an armed guard. They locked us in a room, where we met a third hostage,” she recounts.
An Israeli strike on the hospital on Monday, which reportedly killed 20 people, including five journalists, elicited widespread anger worldwide. Israel has indicated the attack was a mistake, but has also noted its use by the Hamas terror group.
Gritzewsky, who has recounted many of these details in the past, tells council members to use whatever leverage they have to push for a deal ending the war and freeing the hostages.
“Do not turn away. Do not look for excuses. Do not allow political divisions to silence the voices of victims. Use your influence, your power, your responsibility, to demand the unconditional release of every hostage. Not tomorrow. Not in some distant future. But now. We need to make a deal. Israeli citizens want this war to end,” she says.
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