WASHINGTON

CIA Director William Burns said Monday that a cease-fire is needed to provide starving children in Gaza with the necessary humanitarian assistance amid Israel’s ongoing attacks on the Palestinian enclave.

"The reality is that there are children who are starving. They're malnourished as a result to the fact that humanitarian assistance can't get to them. It's very difficult to distribute humanitarian assistance effectively, unless you have a cease-fire," said Burns during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.

He said a pending hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas which will initially allow a temporary cease-fire and enable people to get the much-needed humanitarian aid has "great value.”

Asked by Republican Senator Tom Cotton if he believed Israel was "exterminating the Palestinian people,” the CIA chief said he understands “Israel’s need" to respond to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

“But I think we all also have to be mindful of the enormous toll this has taken on innocent civilians in Gaza,” he said. “As the president has said, it’s very important for Israel to be extremely mindful of that and to avoid further loss of civilian life," Burns added.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has said that one in six children under two years of age is acutely malnourished in northern Gaza.

“Babies (are) slowly perishing under the world’s gaze,” it said. “Children (are) dying from bombs, even more now dying from consequences of siege. These horrific deaths are entirely preventable.”

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack led by the Palestinian group Hamas in which nearly 1,200 people were killed.

More than 31,100 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed in Gaza, and over 72,700 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, at least 27 people have died of malnutrition and dehydration in Gaza due to the Israeli blockade.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of most food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.