Former president Mary Robinson has said what is happening in Gaza is “unconscionable” and that there is an “utter urgency” for a ceasefire.

The former UN high commissioner for human rights told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland there needs to be a parallel humanitarian and political approach.

Yesterday, more than 100 human rights and aid organisations – including Mercy Corps, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Refugees International – warned that mass starvation was spreading across the enclave even as tons of food, clean water, medical supplies and other items sit untouched just outside Gaza as humanitarian organisations are blocked from accessing or delivering them.

“It is unconscionable what is happening and there is an utter urgency to have a ceasefire and to allow the stockpiles of food, water, medical supplies, shelter, etc, to be distributed by the UN and by the many aid agencies who are more than willing and ready to distribute.”

Mrs Robinson, former chair of The Elders – an international organisation of public figures noted as elder statespeople, peace activists and human rights advocates – called for all hostages to be released.

However, she called for a “parallel approach” saying: “We also need the political approach and we need that to be a turning point”.

She said there was potential for that at an upcoming conference in New York. “If western countries, particularly P5 [UN security council permanent members] countries like the United Kingdom and France, recognise the state of Palestine , then we begin the political road towards that state. We restore the humanity of the Palestinians who are being dehumanised . . . The political solution is for the countries who will be involved, the foreign ministers who will present in New York, to rally together and begin to plan.

“The Elders are very in favour of an approach which has both Israeli and Palestinian support, not at the political level, but at the academic and civil society level. It’s called a land for all. It’s a two-state collaborative, two-states solution for the states of Palestine and Israel together. One state with two states within it. And that’s a possibility. There are other possibilities, but there must be a political way forward. That’s what’s been absent.”

Mrs Robinson said that during the second World War the Nazis had “dehumanised the Jews so that they could exterminate them in gas chambers. And that’s why we have to have the humanitarian and the political side by side”.

Recently Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu telephoned Pope Leo to apologise for the injury to Fr Gabriel Romanelli when a Catholic church was bombed. However, he has not made any other apologies, Mrs Robinson said.

“Prime minister Netanyahu has not apologised for the more than 17,000 children killed in Gaza. He has not apologised for the many more children left without limbs and without family members. He has not apologised for all the children of Gaza who’ve been traumatised by this totally disproportionate war and are now hungry to the point of starvation because no apology is deemed to be necessary because this right-wing government has dehumanised the Palestinians.”

When asked if Israel should face sanctions as had Syria and Russia, she said: “Yes, there should be more sanctions on the leaders who are responsible, and there should be no arms supplied to continue this war which has been involved in so many war crimes.”