Intensified Israeli military attacks on Gaza City and forced displacement orders for the entire city are leaving families with an impossible dilemma: flee and risk death on the road and in overcrowded displacement areas, or stay and face relentless bombardment in their shelters. Starvation and siege await them regardless.
“Our only demand is life. We are humans just like you. We want to live with dignity and safety, not to die from hunger or bombs.”
— Ayman (name changed), a father sheltering with his family in Gaza City
Nearly one million Palestinians, starved, grieving, and displaced many times over, remain in Gaza City. If Israel’s operation in Gaza City continues, hospitals will be cut off and attacked, shelters and schools bombed, aid convoys blocked, and those too weak, old, or sick to flee will be left to die. “We are tired of running from one place to another,” said Abeer (name changed), a humanitarian worker.
At the same time, Israel is deliberately obstructing humanitarian operations. Aid trucks continue to be denied, and international NGOs are left in limbo by an opaque registration regime, even as famine deepens.
The International Court of Justice has recognised that Palestinians in Gaza have a right to be protected from genocide. Each act of forced displacement and each surge of hunger makes that danger more certain, and the world cannot claim it did not see this coming.
Let our goods enter. Let us work. Stop this assault.
Signatories
Signed by 45 humanitarian and civil society organisations:
- ActionAid
- Action For Humanity
- American Friends Service Committee
- Anera
- Asamblea de Cooperación por la Paz
- A New Policy
- Caritas Internationalis
- Caritas Jerusalem
- Christian Aid
- Churches for Middle East Peace
- CISS - Cooperazione Internazionale Sud Sud
- Danish Refugee Council
- Danske Hus i Palæstina
- Embrace the Middle East
- Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
- HelpAge International
- Humanity & Inclusion - Handicap International
- Humanity First UK
- Insecurity Insight
- INSO
- Islamic Relief
- Japan International Volunteer Center (JVC)
- Médecins Du Monde France (MdM France)
- Médecins du Monde Switzerland (MdM Switzerland)
- MedGlobal
- Medico International
- Médicos del Mundo (Spain)
- Mennonite Central Committee
- National Justice and Peace Network England and Wales
- Norwegian People’s Aid
- Oxfam
- Pax Christi Flanders
- Pax Christi München
- Pax Christi Scotland
- People in Need
- Plan International
- Premiere Urgence Internationale
- Rebuilding Alliance
- Saferworld
- Secours Islamique France
- Solidarités International
- Terre des Hommes Italy
- The Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA)
- Vento di Terra
- War Child Alliance