EU's Borrell says Israel is provoking famine in Gaza

(Adds response by Israel's foreign minister in paragraphs 1, 4-5) BRUSSELS, March 18 (Reuters) - EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday that Israel is provoking famine in Gaza and using starvation as a weapon of war, an accusation Israel's foreign minister rejected.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday that Israel is provoking famine in Gaza and using starvation as a weapon of war, an accusation Israel's foreign minister rejected. "In Gaza we are no longer on the brink of famine, we are in a state of famine, affecting thousands of people," Borrell said at the opening of a conference on humanitarian aid for Gaza in Brussels.

"This is unacceptable. Starvation is used as a weapon of war. Israel is provoking famine." Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz in a response urged Borrell to "stop attacking Israel and recognize our right to self-defense against Hamas' crimes".

Katz in a post on X said Israel allowed "extensive humanitarian aid into Gaza by land, air, and sea for anyone willing to help", but that help was "violently disturbed" by Hamas militants with "collaboration" by the U.N.'s aid agency UNRWA.