United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk on Tuesday blamed Israel for what he said was the entirely avoidable catastrophe of hunger and famine unfolding in Gaza, and urged international pressure on the country to ensure unfettered access of humanitarian aid.

International alarm over the hunger crisis in Gaza is growing, drawing the attention of food experts predicting an impending famine in the north of the enclave and foreign leaders and diplomats are becoming increasingly blunt in pointing the finger at Israel.

“The situation of hunger, starvation and famine is a result of Israel’s extensive restrictions on the access and distribution of humanitarian aid and commercial goods, the displacement of most of the population, as well as the destruction of critical civilian infrastructure,” said Mr. Turk. in a statement.

Mr Türk said that Israel’s restrictions on aid, together with its behavior in its campaign to destroy Hamas, including the displacement of people and the destruction of infrastructure, could amount to the use of starvation as a weapon of war, which is a war crime .

Israel has pushed back on criticism that it is restricting access to Gaza. noting his support for several recent initiativesincluding attempts to provide air and sea supplies, which aid agencies say are far less efficient than road transport.

It has accused Hamas of diverting aid and using Palestinian civilians as human shields. The country’s mission in Geneva said on Tuesday that Mr Türk “is once again trying to blame Israel for the situation and completely absolve the responsibility of the UN and Hamas.”

A report released Monday by the U.N.-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said 1.1 million people, half of Gaza’s population, were likely to face catastrophic food insecurity and predicted an impending rise in the number of hunger-related deaths.

“The coping mechanisms we have seen in recent weeks, even months, are people eating bird seeds, livestock feed, wild grass and weeds,” Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the U.N. aid agency in Geneva, told reporters on Tuesday as he addressed the report discussed. . “We are further than that. There is literally nothing left.”

The World Health Organization said on Tuesday it had set up a center to try to stabilize malnutrition levels in southern Gaza and planned to set up a new center in the north, but it said delivering supplies at the scale needed require a ceasefire. Talks continue in Qatar amid another intense diplomatic effort to broker a lull in the fighting.

Famous Big Brother contestant Louis Walsh is not one to shy away from speaking his mind.

And Tuesday’s episode will show that he will continue to share his outspoken opinions.

In a clip shown on Late and Live on Monday, hosted by AJ Odudu and Will Best, it was revealed that the former X Factor star, 71, has some strong opinions about Sir Bob Geldof.

As the participants gathered in the kitchen in the morning, they talked about certain songs that had been released over the years.

Colson Smith, 25, from Coronation Street, spoke specifically about it, asking: ‘Who wrote it? Bob Geldof?’ to which an unimpressed Louis responded with a “Pfft!”

She tried to coax the answer out of Irish music manager, Marisha Wallace, 38, then asked: ‘Who wrote it? Prince?’

Louis simply nodded his head and when Marisha exclaimed that Prince had written so many songs, an irritated-looking Louis replied, “Yes, he did.”

Sensing that the TV personality was unimpressed, Zeze Millz then said: “I take it you’re not a Bob Geldof fan, Louis?”

Louis, still in his dressing gown, poured himself a cup of tea and didn’t hold back on what he really thought about the fellow countryman who has raised millions for charity.

“Well, I think it’s full,” he said.

He then added: ‘He’s from Dublin. I know little bits. The Boomtown Rats were good.”

Marisha, seemingly shocked by Louis’ reaction, openly apologized in case Bob was watching, to which Louis then angrily exclaimed, “I don’t care!”

Fans shared their thoughts with X – formerly known as X.

One seemed to side with Bob and couldn’t quite believe what they were hearing, writing: ‘How dare Walsh now slam Bob Geldof, the master of the live aid patch.’

Another agreed with the music manager, writing: “Louis is honestly right about Bob Geldof.”

The shocking revelation comes after Louis was spared from elimination this week and will see himself go straight to the finals.

In Monday night’s episode, Fern Britton unknowingly spared Louis after Big Brother tricked her into believing she wanted him deported.

Fern was told to secretly place a red snake on the pillow of the person she wanted to evict.

Later, as the housemates were relaxing in the bedroom, they were told to find an intruder.

Louis was later told by Big Brother that he had been chosen for eviction by a fellow housemate, and so a snake was placed on his pillow.

He was then told to look in the hatch in front of him, where he found a four-leaf clover, meaning he missed the next round of nominations and guaranteed his place in the grand final.

But determined to find out the culprit, Louis vowed to unravel the mystery, convinced it was ‘never the obvious person’.

With a second tug ship in urgent need of help and ready to leave for Gaza on Sunday, José Andrés, the founder of the food organization that sent the ships, called for a ceasefire and said Israel should do more to prevent hunger in Gaza.

“At the very least,” said Andrés, the celebrity chef, on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Israel “should ensure that no one goes hungry and that no one goes without food and water.”

“This is something that should happen overnight,” he added. “But for political reasons I don’t think it happens there.”

Mr. Andrés said he hoped his group, World Central Kitchen, would be able to scale up its burgeoning efforts and eventually bring “massive quantities of food every day to the shores of Gaza,” where, according to United Nations officials, 2, 2 million people are on the run. brink of famine.

Although the Open Arms, the first ship dispatched by the group, has attracted global attention in recent days, the maritime route has so far provided only a small portion of the aid the UN says is needed to prevent famine. The Open Arms towed a ship to a makeshift jetty off the coast of Gaza on Friday carrying the equivalent of about 10 truckloads of food – far less than the 500 trucks a day that aid groups say are needed.

Aid groups — including World Central Kitchen, which has sent more than 1,400 aid trucks to Gaza — have urged Israel to allow more trucks through more land crossings, saying only a rapid flow of trucks can support Gaza’s population.

But according to U.N. data, only about 150 trucks enter Gaza every day through the two open border crossings, due to several factors, including lengthy Israeli inspections to impose strict restrictions on what can enter Gaza.

The restrictions on these entry points have sparked a scramble for creative solutions among donors such as the European Union, which helped establish a maritime route from Cyprus to Gaza, and the United States, which has dropped aid and is leading an effort to build a temporary pier off the coast of Gaza to allow more deliveries by ship. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that it would take six to eight weeks to complete construction.

So far, only the World Central Kitchen, which Mr Andrés founded after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, has successfully delivered direct aid to Gaza by ship. The first delivery consisted of approximately 200 tons of rice, flour and lentils, as well as canned tuna, chicken and beef.

The second, which was still anchored in the Cypriot port of Larnaca on Sunday evening, will bring food and equipment to help with future maritime deliveries.

Mr Andrés wondered aloud on Sunday why the Israeli army was bombing buildings in Gaza where hostages could be staying that Israel says it wants to see brought to safety. He also appealed for peace, saying he had seen great humanity on both sides of the conflict.

“The time I spent in Israel, the time I spent in Gaza, it seems that everyone loves falafel and everyone loves hummus with equal intensity,” said Mr. Andrés, whose group has more than 60 community kitchens in Gaza has opened to serve hot meals. “It makes you wonder how people who like the same foods can come into conflict with each other.”

The United Nations human rights office has documented more than 20 attacks since January on Gazans waiting for desperately needed aid. as hunger spreads as a result of Israel’s near-complete siege, which prevented most food and water from entering the small enclave.

The agency did not blame any party for the wave of attacks as people wait for help. In a number of UN reports and statements, the agency has documented at least 26 such attacks since mid-January.

They include Thursday evening attack about hundreds of Palestinians waiting at the Kuwait roundabout in Gaza City for an expected convoy of aid trucks. Health officials in Gaza accused Israeli forces of carrying out a “targeted” attack on the crowd that killed 20 people, and three witnesses described shelling at the scene.

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The United Nations human rights office has documented more than 20 attacks since January on Gazans waiting for desperately needed aid, with hunger spreading as Israel’s near-total siege prevents most food and water from entering the small enclave .

The agency did not blame any party for the wave of attacks as people wait for help. In a number of UN reports and statements, the agency has documented at least 26 such attacks since mid-January.

This includes Thursday evening’s attack on hundreds of Palestinians who were waiting at the Kuwait roundabout in Gaza City for an expected convoy of aid trucks. Health officials in Gaza accused Israeli forces of carrying out a “targeted” attack on the crowd that killed 20 people, and three witnesses described shelling at the scene.

The Israeli military blamed Palestinian gunmen for the bloodshed and said it continued to review the episode. It said an “intensive preliminary investigation” had found that no “tank fire, airstrike or gunfire had been carried out against Gaza civilians on the aid convoy,” although it did not say whether its forces had opened fire at all.

According to the United Nations, it was at least the 10th incident in March in which people were shot or injured while waiting for help at the roundabouts in Kuwait or Nabulsi. They are the two main southern entrances to Gaza City, where the few humanitarian aid trucks entering northern Gaza from the south arrive.

In the deadliest incident, more than a hundred Palestinians were killed and many more injured in late February when Israeli forces opened fire around a convoy in Gaza City. Witnesses said Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians who rushed forward toward aid trucks.

The Israeli army said its forces opened fire “when a mob moved in a way that endangered them.” It is said that most people died in a stampede and some were run over by trucks.

Aid agencies, including the United Nations, have said that instead of helping to facilitate humanitarian aid, Israel has blocked aid going both to the Gaza Strip and to the north, where the hunger situation has become dire.

“Israel’s choices in methods and means of warfare have caused a humanitarian catastrophe,” the UN agency said in a report this month. “Such choices include imposing a siege on Gaza, other restrictions on humanitarian aid and the distribution of commercial goods, massive destruction of civilian infrastructure, including roads essential for access to the population, and restrictions on freedom of movement between the north and south of Gaza. .”

Israel, which imposed a siege after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack, has said throughout the war that it was committed to allowing as much aid as possible into Gaza. The country has blamed the delays on UN personnel and logistics.

On Friday, the United Nations human rights office called on Israel in a statement to ensure food and medical care are provided to meet Gaza’s needs. Aid groups have said that in addition to Israeli restrictions on aid convoys, looting by hungry Palestinians and increasing lawlessness have made it difficult, if not impossible, to distribute aid.

If Israel cannot provide assistance, it “has an obligation to facilitate humanitarian assistance activities, including by ensuring the security conditions necessary for such activities,” the human rights office said.

In February, a quarter of planned UN aid missions were facilitated by Israeli authorities, the UN Office for Humanitarian Coordination said.

UN officials and other aid groups have warned that Gaza is approaching famine due to inadequate food supplies. At least 27 people, including 23 children, have died from malnutrition, dehydration and lack of baby food, according to the Health Ministry.

One of the witnesses, Mohammad Hamoudeh, a photographer and journalist in Gaza City, said he did not see any Israeli forces or weapons firing into the crowd. But he said heavy Israeli fire from a distance appeared to be responsible for the casualties.

“The guns and tank shells targeted the civilians,” he said.

“I escaped by a miracle; we have seen death with our eyes,” he said. Referring to the earlier convoy disaster, he said: “It was almost the same scenario as the Nabulsi incident. There were many martyrs. The scene was horrible.”

Even after the bloodshed, people gathered whatever help they could, he said, including bags of bloodied flour.

Ali Al Ajouri, a 16-year-old from Jabaliah, also described the shootings into the crowd. “There were about 30 people gathered in one place and a grenade shot them straight,” he said.

Dr. Eid Sabbah, chief nursing officer at Kamal Adwan Hospital, said: “It was not gunfire. It was heavy weapon ammunition that caused large gaps; this is clearly visible in the entrance and exit wounds.”

Dr. Sabbah said the patients treated at the hospital mainly had chest and head wounds. Doctors there could only stabilize them and keep them alive, he said, and could not perform operations due to the lack of medicines and medical supplies.

Ibrahim Al Najjar, 42, an unemployed taxi driver, said he was in the area around 8pm when a large crowd had gathered. Shelling and shootings soon followed, he said. He said his cousin had been killed and his right arm wounded by shrapnel.

“I was running for my life with others, and then they hit a building next to us,” he said. “We kept running until we reached a few ambulances far away.”

The Israeli military said it was not responsible for the attack. “About an hour before the convoy’s arrival in the humanitarian corridor, armed Palestinians opened fire while Gaza civilians waited for the aid convoy’s arrival,” the army said. “As aid trucks came in, the Palestinian gunmen continued to shoot while the crowds of Gazans began looting the trucks. In addition, a number of Gaza civilians were run over by the trucks.”

A humanitarian aid ship arrived in Gaza on Friday for the first time since the war began, a first step in a fledgling maritime operation to deliver more aid to hungry Palestinians as aid groups say Israel is restricting more efficient deliveries by road.

The ship, the Open Arms, was towing a barge loaded with about 200 tonnes of rice, flour, lentils and canned tuna, beef and chicken, supplied by the charity World Central Kitchen, from Cyprus across the Mediterranean. It is the first ship authorized to deliver aid to Gaza since 2005, according to Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Union’s executive branch, who has described the operation as a pilot project for a so-called maritime corridor for supplies to the Gaza Strip. area.

Linda Roth, a spokeswoman for World Central Kitchen, said the Open Arms had docked at a newly built jetty on the Gaza coast and workers began moving the food onto the land. It remained unclear how the food would be distributed among Palestinian civilians.

The food on the ships is desperately needed in Gaza, where officials say about 20 children have already died from malnutrition and hundreds of thousands of others are “one step away from famine,” the United Nations said. But delivering aid by sea is not nearly as efficient as delivering aid by land, and humanitarian groups have been calling on Israel for months to open more land crossings, ease restrictions on convoys and address their operational problems.

“For large-scale relief efforts, there is no meaningful substitute for the many land routes and entry points from Israel into Gaza,” two U.N. aid officials, Sigrid Kaag and Jorge Moreira da Silva, said in a statement this week. Still, they welcomed the opening of a maritime corridor, given that much more humanitarian aid is still needed in Gaza.

Israel, which tightened its already restrictive blockade of Gaza after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack, has said throughout the war that it was committed to allowing as much aid as possible into Gaza. The country has blamed the delays on UN personnel and logistics.

This week, amid mounting international pressure to allow more aid, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visited northern Gaza and reviewed preparations for the new maritime humanitarian route. Mr Gallant – who in October ordered Gaza to have “no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel” – called aid a “central issue” in a Defense Department statement about his trip.

But safely distributing food where it’s needed — amid insecurity, lawlessness and roads damaged by Israeli attacks — could face many of the same obstacles as U.N. aid groups that were forced to halt deliveries in northern Gaza last month to suspend.

José Andrés, the famed Spanish-American chef who founded the World Central Kitchen, acknowledged the challenges in an interview with The New York Times last week, but added: “It’s worth trying the impossible to feed the people of Gaza.”

The group said a second ship carrying 300 tons of aid was loaded in Cyprus on Thursday, but it was not clear when it would leave.

Gaya Gupta, Monika Pronczuk, Michael Levenson And Christina Morales reporting contributed.