More than 100 international cooperation organizations and human rights defense groups have launched a joint statement warning about and pressing governments, especially Westerners, to take measures.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Save the Children and Oxfam are among the signatories of a statement that says that their colleagues inside the strip and the people they are served are “consuming.”
Israel, who controls the entry of all supplies into the territory, rejected the declaration of the organizations and accused them of “serving the propaganda of”.
This first -order NGO warning, formidable experience on the ground and proven credibility, occurred when Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported that another 10 Palestinians have died as a result of malnutrition in the last 24 hours. This raises the number of deaths of this type in Gaza from Sunday to 43, according to the Ministry. The UN has reported that people have entered in a state of serious exhaustion caused by the lack of food and that others are collapsing in the streets, directly. They have warned that their collaborators in the area also suffer like the rest of their convecinos, so even the information is in danger.
“While the siege of the Israeli government kills the population of Gaza from hunger, humanitarian workers now join the same ranks to receive food, risking them to shoot them alone to feed their families,” said the 109 humanitarian organizations in the statement published on Wednesday. With totally exhausted supplies, humanitarian organizations see how their own colleagues and partners vanished before their eyes.
Israel imposed a total blockade of the supply of humanitarian aid to Gaza in early March, with the Islamic Resistance Movement, and resumed its military offensive two weeks later. Tel Aviv justified the restart of the attacks in which he wanted to press the armed group to release the remaining Israeli hostages. But it is civilians, 2.3 million people, who suffer from it too.
Although the blockade was partially relieved after almost two months due to international pressure, amid warnings of an imminent famine by world experts, food, medicine and fuel shortage has worsened. Doctors report record indices of acute malnutrition, especially between children and the elderly. Diseases such as acute aqueous diarrhea are spreading, markets are empty, waste accumulate and adults collapse in the streets due to hunger and dehydration, warned humanitarian organizations.
A humanitarian worker who provides psychosocial support spoke of the devastating impact on children: “Children tell their parents that they want to go to heaven, because at least in heaven there is food,”.
“Children tell their parents that they want to go to heaven, because at least in heaven there is food”
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that its evaluations show that a quarter of the population faces conditions similar to famine and that almost 100,000 women and children suffer from severe acute malnutrition and need treatment as soon as possible. Its director, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, emphasized yesterday: “As you know, the massive famine means the famine of a great proportion of the population, and a great proportion of the population of Gaza is dying of hunger. I do not know how you would call it, except for a massive hungry, and it is caused by man. And that is very clear, this is because of the block.
Dr. Ahmad Al-Farra, Chief of Pediatrics at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, explains that there had been no food available for three days. Children arrive at their unit through different degrees of starvation. Some were malnourished and died in the hospital. Others arrived with health problems that prevented nutrient absorption. “We were afraid to reach this critical point, and now we have reached it,” he told the British chain.
The shortage of basic supplies has caused prices in local markets to shoot and have left most families without buying anything. “It’s outrageous, prices are in the clouds,” said a resident of Gaza. “Every day we need 300 Shekels (about 90 euros) only for flour.”
Hunger tails
Humanitarian organizations also pointed out that the UN says having registered the murder by the Israeli army of more than 1,050 Palestinians who tried to get food since May 27, the day after the controversial mechanism of distribution of aid directed by the, backed by Israel and the United States, began to function as an alternative to the mechanism directed by the UN.
According to the UN Human Rights Office, 766 people have died in the vicinity of the four GHF help centers, located within Israeli military areas and operated by US private security contractors. Another 288 people have died near the UN convoys and other convoys.
The Israeli army states that its troops deployed near the GHF locations have only made warning shots and that they do not intentionally shoot against civilians. The GHF states that the UN uses “false and misleading” figures of the Gaza Ministry of Health.
Humanitarian organizations also said that almost the entire population of Gaza has been displaced and is now confined to less than 12% of the territory not covered by Israeli evacuation orders or within Israeli militarized areas, which makes help operations unsustainable. And they said that on average only 28 trucks are distributed with help every day in Gaza.
The European Union has confirmed fair that less than a hundred trucks entered average to day to deliver humanitarian aid, food and medicines, from the agreement signed with Israel two weeks ago to substantially improve humanitarian access.
Problems and solutions
In its first evaluation before the Member States on the application of the Pact with Israel, the European Commission and the EU Foreign Action Service have reported that more than a thousand trucks have entered the strip from the agreement with Israel, diplomatic sources have indicated to Europa Press, which leaves the trucks that entered on average a day in the strip. So far the EU pointed out that every day about 80 trucks to the strip passed, although it has no personnel on the ground and depends on the reports of third actors.
“Right on the outskirts of Gaza, in stores, and even within Gaza herself, tons of food, drinking water, medical supplies, shelter and fuel materials remain intact, while humanitarian organizations are prevented from accessing them and distributing them.”
The UN says that Israel, as an occupying power, has the obligation under international law to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches the entire population in need.
Israel insists that it acts in accordance with international law and facilitates the entry of help, guaranteeing at the same time that it does not reach Hamas. Recently he acknowledged that there has been a significant fall in the supplies that reach the Palestinians, but blamed the UN agencies.
The Israeli Military Agency Cogat, which coordinates the entry of help to Gaza, wrote on Monday that almost 4,500 trucks had entered Gaza in the last two months, including 2,500 tons of baby food and special food high in calories for children.
He also published images of a drone that showed what he said were some of the 950 trucks full of help that expected to be collected by the UN and other international organizations on the Gaza side of the Kerem Sharem and Zikim’s crosses. “The bottleneck in the collection remains the main obstacle to maintaining a constant flow of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip,” said the Cogat.
The UN has repeatedly said that it has difficulties in obtaining the Israeli authorization necessary to collect the supplies that arrive with Gaza drivers from inside the crossing points and transport them through military areas.
The ongoing hostilities, seriously damaged roads and the serious shortage of fuel have exacerbated problems. The looting by armed bands has also sometimes paralyzed operations. The UN has said that one of the main problems in recent weeks has been fighting to obtain commitments from the Israeli army that desperate Palestinians will not be killed while trying to collect help from their convoys.
The UN spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, declared in an informative session on Tuesday: “In too many cases in which Israel allows the UN teams to collect supplies of closed enclosures near the border crossings of Gaza, the civilians who approach these trucks are attacked despite the repeated guarantees that the troops would not intervene or be present.”
This unacceptable pattern is the opposite of what should be to facilitate humanitarian operations. Absolutely no one should risk their lives to get food.
Humanitarian organizations, in their document, said it is time for governments to “take decisive measures.” For example, demand a high immediate and permanent fire; lift all bureaucratic and administrative restrictions; open all terrestrial crosses; guarantee access to all throughout Gaza; reject distribution models controlled by the military; restore a humanitarian response based on principle and led by the UN, and continue to finance odd humanitarian organizations and with principles.
“States must take concrete measures to end the siege, such as stopping weapons and ammunition,” they added.
The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs categorically rejected the statement, accusing organizations of “using Hamas discussion points.” “These organizations serve Hamas’s propaganda, using their numbers and justifying their horrors,” he added. “Instead of challenging the terrorist organization, they accept it as their own,” he even denounces.
The Ministry also said they were “harming the possibilities” of a new agreement of high fire and hostage release, which Israel and Hamas are negotiating in indirect conversations in Qatar.
The Israeli army launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the attack led by Hamas against southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people died and another 251 were taken as hostages. At least 59,219 people have died in Gaza since then, according to the Ministry of Health of the Territory led by Hamas.
