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GENEVA

The UN human rights chief on Wednesday described the humanitarian situation in Gaza as "horrific," urging the world to take urgent notice and action amid worsening conditions and growing international concern over Israel's control of aid deliveries.

"Anyone who wants to put emphasis on this situation, that's very important, because we need to bring attention to it so that everyone wakes up and does something about it," Volker Turk said in Geneva in response to Anadolu's question about Israel's seizure this week of the aid ship Madleen, blocking it from reaching Gaza.

"It is absolutely clear that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is beyond any description that you can possibly imagine," he said. "Most of the population has not had humanitarian assistance for many, many weeks. It's already an extremely dire situation with emaciated children, with people who have no access to medicine anymore, with no food items."

The human rights chief said the UN has had a clear operational plan for delivering aid in Gaza, but its work has been increasingly obstructed. "For weeks, the UN has been very clear. We have a plan. We have been able to work there before. Unfortunately, we have been extremely constrained in the way that we're doing now," he said.

He criticized the new aid mechanism established by Israel, which excludes UN agencies and some humanitarian groups, for failing to meet core humanitarian standards.

"It doesn't fulfill the basic principles of humanitarian action, which means impartiality, neutrality and independence, and as a result, we could not be part of it," he said.

The mechanism has also been criticized after hundreds of Palestinians were killed or injured trying to reach the aid, with Gaza accusing the scheme of helping Israel target civilians under the guise of providing aid.

- Cut off from international aid, Gaza faces famine, malnutrition

Israeli forces seized the British-flagged vessel Madleen in international waters early Monday and detained its 12-strong crew.

The Madleen set sail on June 6 from Sicily, Italy for Gaza in an attempt to break an Israeli naval blockade on the enclave, where nearly 55,000 people have been killed in a deadly onslaught since October 2023.

The Israeli authorities deported four activists on Tuesday, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, to their home countries, while eight others remain in detention.

As Israel has kept Gaza’s border crossings closed to humanitarian aid since early March, international aid agencies have warned about the risk of famine among Gaza’s 2.4 million inhabitants.

On Wednesday, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said that more than 2,700 Palestinian children have been diagnosed with acute malnutrition in Gaza amid a crippling Israeli siege on the enclave.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, at the center of the Israeli aid mechanism, is opposed by the international community and the UN, and comes as an alternative attempt by Israel to bypass the aid distribution through UN channels.

Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.