UNITED NATIONS: Israel on Friday blasted the United Nations aid chief for asking the UN Security Council if it would act to “prevent genocide” in the Gaza Strip, where experts say famine looms after Israel blocked aid deliveries to the Palestinian enclave 75 days ago.

While briefing the 15-member body earlier this week, UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said: “Will you act – decisively – to prevent genocide and to ensure respect for international humanitarian law?“

In a letter to Fletcher on Friday, Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon accused him of delivering “a political sermon” and weaponizing the word genocide against Israel, questioning under what authority he made what Israel viewed as an accusation.

“You had the audacity, in your capacity as a senior UN official, to stand before the Security Council and invoke the charge of genocide without evidence, mandate, or restraint,” he wrote. “It was an utterly inappropriate and deeply irresponsible statement that shattered any notion of neutrality.”

A spokesperson for Fletcher did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.

Under international law, genocide is an intent to destroy, in whole or part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. This includes through killings, serious bodily or mental harm and inflicting conditions calculated to bring about physical destruction.

The war in Gaza was triggered on October 7, 2023, when Palestinian militants Hamas killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and took some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.

Israel has accused Hamas of stealing aid, which the group denies, and has blocked all aid to Gaza since March 2, demanding Hamas release all remaining hostages.

A global hunger monitor warned on Monday that half a million people face starvation — about a quarter of the population in the enclave.

US President Donald Trump said on Friday that “a lot of people are starving in Gaza.”

LONDON: UK religious leaders on Friday called on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to tone down his language about migration, after comparisons were made to an inflammatory speech in the 1960s.

Labour leader Starmer this week announced tougher new policies to tackle high levels of migration, in an attempt to stem a growing loss of support to the hard right.

In a speech, he said the UK risked becoming “an island of strangers,” prompting comparisons to similar phrasing in the late politician Enoch Powell’s so-called “rivers of blood” speech about the dangers of uncontrolled immigration in 1968.

Downing Street has strongly rejected the claims but the religious leaders, including Church of England bishops, senior Muslim and Jewish clerics, asked him to “reconsider the language the government uses.”

“Our concern is that the current narrative, which presents only one side of the debate, will only drive public anxiety and entrench polarization,” they wrote.

“When you refer to the ‘incalculable’ damage done by uncontrolled migration, you are in danger of harming migrant members of our communities and strengthening those who would divide us,” they added.

Former human rights lawyer Starmer’s hardening tone has shocked some of his parliamentary colleagues and a YouGov poll published Friday indicated that half of Labour voters now have a negative opinion of him.

The 25 signatories instead called for a “more compassionate narrative,” pointing out that many migrants had become “part of our national story and fabric.”

“Our country would be so much poorer without them,” they added.

Starmer’s plans include restrictions on recruiting from abroad for the social care sector, doubling the length of time before migrants can qualify for settlement and new powers to deport foreign criminals.

The religious leaders said people who had come to the UK legitimately under rules set by previous governments, working and paying tax.

“Framing this as somehow unfair only feeds the politics of grievance and division,” they added.

The letter was sent to Starmer after his speech on Monday, The Guardian newspaper reported.

It quoted a Downing Street spokesperson as saying: “We are clear that migrants make a massive contribution to the UK, and would never denigrate that.

“Britain is an inclusive and tolerant country, but the public expect that people who come here should be expected to learn the language and integrate.”