The UN special rapporteur on the right to food Michael Fakhri has said that all children under the age of five in Gaza are not getting enough nutrition and are at risk of permanent physical and cognitive impairment.

“We’ve never seen 2.2 million civilians made to go hungry within weeks. We have never seen this degree of hunger used as a weapon so quickly and so completely, ever,” Fakhri told Al Jazeera.

“It doesn’t happen by chance. Starvation, wherever it happens, is always the result of political choices and this is the same case here,” Fakhri said.

“There was a 16-year blockade before this. So even before the war, half of the people in Gaza were food insecure and 80 per cent depended on aid,” he said.

“Then [Israel] imposes a siege during the war. Then it destroys civilian infrastructure. So Israel has destroyed hospitals, homes, roads, making everyday life impossible. And finally, what I’m receiving reports of is the destruction of the food system itself,” he added.