United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has raised alarm at forced displacement orders issued by Israel in the northern Gaza Strip, saying they are meant to besiege the area and may constitute a “war crime.”

Turk made the remarks at a news conference in New York on Thursday, almost two weeks after the Israeli military began renewed attacks in northern Gaza and issued evacuation orders affecting an estimated 400,000 Palestinians while preventing food from reaching them.

“Israel’s evacuation orders appear designed to cut off North Gaza completely from the rest of the territory, as bombing and other attacks continue,” he said.

“There are serious concerns about a large-scale forcible transfer of civilians, not meeting the requirements of international law for evacuation on imperative military grounds. Forcible transfer of a large part of the population of North Gaza would amount to a war crime.”

The UN rights chief also called on the occupying regime to immediately “facilitate the massive influx of humanitarian aid” across all parts of Gaza.

Earlier in the day, a UN-backed food security assessment found that over 1.8 million people in Gaza are experiencing “extremely critical” levels of hunger, with 70 percent of crop fields destroyed and livelihoods decimated in Israel’s genocidal war on the Palestinian territory.

The report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, said 133,000 people are already experiencing Phase 5 or “catastrophic” food insecurity in Gaza, warning that the number could rise to around 345,000 over the coming months.

Turk said the report’s conclusions are “beyond terrifying”, adding, “They show that the number of people at catastrophic levels of hunger is expected to double in the coming months, and the risk of famine persists across the whole of Gaza.”

He further noted that the hunger crisis in the Gaza Strip is “principally the consequence of decisions made by the Israeli authorities” and warned that starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is a war crime.

“As the occupying power, Israel has the specific obligation under IHL [international humanitarian law] to bring into Gaza the necessary foodstuffs, medical supplies and other articles, and to facilitate humanitarian relief by all means at its disposal,” he emphasized.

“Unfortunately, the reality on the ground is that there is only a trickle of aid getting into Gaza. There are reports that Israeli forces are preventing humanitarian aid from accessing the north, exacerbating the already desperate humanitarian and medical needs.”

Referring to the situation in Lebanon, Turk said Israel’s daily strikes on residential buildings are taking an “appalling toll” on civilian lives, with significant numbers of casualties, destruction and displacement. 

The UN rights chief also stressed that Israeli attacks on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon are in breach of international law and may constitute war crimes.

He also warned that the risk of a full-fledged regional conflict “remains very high, one that could engulf the lives and the human rights of millions of people,” saying the “illogic of escalation, must end.”

Israel is waging brutal two-front aggression that has killed at least 42,438 people in the Gaza Strip and 2,412 others in Lebanon since early October 2023.