TEHRAN – In a blatant violation of international humanitarian law, Israel has cut humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

Students were reading in history books that during World War II, the warring sides cut off food to people to force their enemies to surrender. But these sadistic acts are happening before our eyes today.

Israel was using starvation once in a while as a weapon during its war on Gaza, punishing Gazans collectively. In the early days of the war, it even cut water to Gaza. It is for nine days that this cruel regime has fully cut aid to the enclave while Hamas and Israel have signed a ceasefire agreement that one of its terms is to allow the flow of aid to the blockaded strip.

Over a dozen human rights experts have denounced Israel’s "weaponized starvation" in Gaza after it decided to delay ceasefire efforts and block humanitarian aid from entering the enclave, Middle East Eye reported. 

The move "flagrantly breaches international law and any prospects of peace", the independent UN experts said in a statement on Thursday. 

“We are alarmed by Israel’s decision to suspend once again all goods and supplies, including life-saving humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip," they added.

"As the occupying power, Israel is always obliged to ensure sufficient food, medical supplies and other relief services. By deliberately cutting vital supplies… Israel is once again weaponizing aid."

The press release added that such blockades violate international humanitarian and human rights laws and are considered war crimes and crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute.

Al Jazeera television has reported that some 2.3 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are in pressing need of food and essentials.

Israeli authorities have blocked all the humanitarian deliveries to the blockaded enclave. Some bakeries cannot open because of fuel shortages.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chose to stop aid after the ceasefire's first phase expired on March 1. He said Hamas had refused a US proposal to extend the Gaza ceasefire.

Thousands of aid trucks had surged into Gaza each week under the ceasefire deal that started on 19 January.

Food prices in Gaza have risen sharply and aid food parcels could soon run out.

If the blockade continued, "at least 80 community kitchens may soon run out of stock" and remaining food parcels that "will support 500,000 people, will soon run out", the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has warned.

Even Britain, France, and Germany which were unstoppably shipping arms to Israel in its genocidal acts in Gaza, have raised alarms over the prevention of aid to the war-ravaged coastal strip, calling the move "catastrophic".

"A halt on goods and supplies entering Gaza, such as that announced by the government of Israel would risk violating international humanitarian law," read a statement by the foreign ministers of the three European countries. "Humanitarian aid should never be contingent on a ceasefire or used as a political tool."

Food prices have increased greatly as a result of this shocking crime.

"The recent decision is unfair as it wrongs our children. How will our children live in light of these high prices that will increase in an arbitrary way?" Issa Meit, a Gaza resident, told the BBC Arabic.

Also on Monday, Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen ordered the stoppage of electricity transmission to Gaza, the Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported.

Last Sunday, the Israel Hayom newspaper reported that the Israeli government was willing to cut electricity and water if Hamas did not agree to extend phase one of the ceasefire deal instead of moving on to phase two.

Israel’s savagery and sadistic moves are making war criminals in the course of history look less cruel, especially as these horrible acts are taking place in today’s world.