Luis Moreno Ocampo has called Isarel's blockade of Gaza as a "crime against humanity and a genocide.
Speaking to BBC Newsday the former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court condemned the attacks by Hamas and Israel's blockade of Gaza.
He said,
“Hamas’s attack on October 7 is clearly a crime against humanity… Because killings with the intention to strike a group is a genocide, and Hamas’s official intention is to strike Israelis,” he told the BBC's Newsday programme.
“It's a war crime, because taking hostages is a war crime,” he added.
Mr Moreno-Ocampo also referred to Israel’s subsequent blockade of Gaza as a “crime against humanity and a genocide”.
“One of the forms to commit a genocide is to inflict on the people [sic] conditions to destroy them. And that's exactly what the blockade is.
“The blockade is blocking water, food, hospitals cannot work, [there is] no electricity for people who can go nowhere. Israel has the right to defend itself, but cannot block 2 million people and in doing so make it into a concentration camp,” he said.
Luis Moreno Ocampo is an Argentine lawyer who served as the first Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) from 2003 to 2012.
Sixty-two aid trucks have entered Gaza since last weekend, carrying much-needed food, water and medical supplies. But none have delivered fuel, which Israel has blocked over concerns it could be stolen and used by Hamas.
At least 7,028 Palestinians have died in Gaza including 2,913 children and 1,709 women as a result of Israeli strikes, as per the Gaza health ministry.
The death toll from the conflict in Gaza is at its highest since Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the region in 2005.
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