PRESIDENT MICHAEL D Higgins has called for EU states to act on Gaza after a man-made famine was declared in Gaza City and the surrounding areas.

In a strongly worded statement, Higgins said that “it is now the time for action”, and called on all EU states to respond along with the international community.

The international community’s credibility and moral authority is at stake without “urgent change”, Higgins said, just hours after UN experts warned half a million people in Gaza City and the surrounding areas face starvation, destitution and death.

Higgins said the status of international law was at stake, along with “misrepresentation of the right to food itself by an occupying power”.

He added that “none of this will wait” until next month, urging action “now”.

Illegal occupation of West Bank

Higgins condemned Israel’s expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, and warned that along with the loss of life in Gaza, these actions were destroying the possibility of a two-state solution.

“So many world leaders have issued statements over the last two years, always referencing a two-state solution,” Higgins said.

How can they now see the very concept destroyed before their eyes – in Gaza with the loss of life and in the West Bank with further illegal occupation.”

In his statement, the president quoted the Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres, who Higgins noted has described the famine as the “deliberate collapse of the systems needed for human survival” in the region.

Higgins repeated Guterres comment that “those with the duty to act are failing”.

The UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the world’s leading system for measuring hunger, confirmed this morning that famine is taking place in the Gaza Governorate, which includes Gaza City, surrounding towns and several refugee camps, home to around 500,000 people.

It is the first famine officially declared in the Middle East since the IPC was created in 2004, and only the fifth worldwide in its history.

The IPC said in a previous report that the famine is “entirely man-made”, and as such “can be halted and reversed”.