A top United Nations official has delivered a harrowing account of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, condemning Israel for conducting what he called a "slow-motion massacre" aimed at systematically erasing Palestinian life through starvation, displacement, and relentless violence.

Jonathan Whittall, Head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, spoke directly from Gaza on Sunday, describing a grim reality where Palestinians are being killed simply for trying to survive.

“While the world turns its attention elsewhere, people in Gaza are being slaughtered just for attempting to access food. Merely seeking basic sustenance has become a death sentence,” Whittall said.

Since a partial loosening of Israel’s blockade over a month ago, more than 400 Palestinians have been killed while attempting to obtain food—many of them at Israeli- and American-controlled aid distribution points that have become zones of violence, not relief.

Israeli forces, Whittall reported, have opened fire on civilians gathered at aid sites, including a recent incident where an Israeli tank shelled a crowd, killing around 60 people and injuring hundreds. These attacks have become a deadly routine, compounded by the presence of armed gangs operating near Israeli military positions, further endangering aid seekers.

“Many of the victims were slaughtered in areas where ambulances couldn’t even reach them,” he added, noting that many of the missing are likely dead, buried under rubble or lost to chaos.

Gaza’s healthcare system, already crippled by years of siege and bombardment, is now nearing total collapse. “Even the few hospitals that remain functional are overwhelmed, under-resourced, and frequently targeted by airstrikes,” Whittall said.

Fuel for generators is critically low, and medical staff are forced to ration care under impossible conditions. Water infrastructure has also disintegrated—wells are out of fuel, pipelines destroyed, and clean water is almost nonexistent.

“Children now wait in endless lines for water that often never arrives,” he reported.

Famine is spreading fast. Whittall cited UNICEF data showing more than 110 children are being hospitalized every day with severe malnutrition. The trickle of food that enters Gaza is often looted out of desperation or hijacked by criminal elements, leaving civilians to suffer the consequences of engineered deprivation.

“Hunger is being weaponized against an entire population,” Whittall warned. “What we are witnessing is the forced displacement and systematic slow killing of Palestinians who are simply trying to stay alive.”

He emphasized that this unfolding tragedy is not a result of chaos but of calculated decisions. “Everything I’ve described is preventable. Yet what we are seeing is the deliberate erasure of Palestinian life from Gaza.”

Whittall reminded the world that Israel, as the occupying power, has clear legal obligations under international law to protect civilian life—a duty it continues to violate with impunity.

He called for immediate and sustained international action: “There must be political and economic consequences for these crimes. The world cannot remain silent as an entire people is starved and bombed into oblivion.”

In his final remarks, Whittall demanded an end to the bloodshed through a permanent ceasefire, in line with the International Court of Justice’s rulings. “From Gaza, I can say with certainty: the world’s current response is nowhere near enough.”

Since October 7, 2023, over 187,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded by Israeli attacks, the vast majority of them women and children. More than 11,000 are still missing, and hundreds of thousands have been forcibly displaced—all under the cover of international complicity and with full U.S. support. (ILKHA)