Geneva – In a statement delivered before the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) accused Israeli authorities of systematically luring Palestinian civilians toward aid distribution points only to open fire on them—turning humanitarian relief mechanisms into deadly traps.

The statement was delivered under Item 7 of the Council’s 59th Session, which addresses the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. PRC warned that the crisis in Gaza extends beyond relentless bombardment to include deliberate mass starvation that now threatens the survival of over two million people, according to UN agencies and the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

The PRC cited a harrowing testimony from a child in Gaza:
“She went to get us flour – they killed her. The bread was dipped in blood.”
This, the centre said, is not symbolic—it reflects a grim reality in which breadlines have become sites of horror. Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire on desperate civilians waiting for food, including on February 29, March 14, and again in June.

PRC noted that these actions are not merely collective punishment, but part of a systematic weaponization of hunger—aimed at dismantling essential life-support systems and deliberately targeting society’s most vulnerable, especially women and children.

In the statement, delivered by Haya Natsha, the Centre stressed that the situation in Gaza is not a natural disaster, but rather the result of an intentional and public policy. “Palestinians are not dying of hunger—they are being led into it and then killed trying to survive.”

PRC urged the Human Rights Council to take a firm and principled stance by:

The statement concluded with a clear call to all Member States:
“Act now—before Gaza is erased.”

Watch the statement here: