More than 100 international humanitarian organizations demand aid entry into Gaza
They claim that their own workers are risking their lives to get food.
BarcelonaInternational pressure is mounting against Israel in the wake of the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. After the 28 countries, including Spain, called for an immediate ceasefire, this Wednesday 111 humanitarian organizations – including Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children and Oxfam – have denounced that "Mass hunger" is spreading throughout the Palestinian enclaveThe statement states that its own workers are unable to provide aid to the people of Gaza: "While the Israeli government's siege starves people, humanitarian workers join the same food lines, risking gunfire just to feed their families." It adds that the torment is not only physical but also psychological: "Survival appears to them [the people of Gaza] as a mirage."
The organizations call for an immediate negotiated ceasefire, the opening of all land border crossings, and the free flow of aid through UN mechanisms. "Partial agreements and symbolic gestures serve as a smokescreen for inaction," they add, referring to agreements like the one they signed. The EU and Israel agreed on July 10 to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. and that the Netanyahu government has failed to comply. The statement also denounces the existence of warehouses with tons of untouched supplies just outside Palestinian territory, and even within it, but that humanitarian organizations are being prevented from accessing them and distributing their products.
At the end of May, Israel partially lifted the two-month blockade it imposed on the distribution of humanitarian aid. The aid is now distributed through the private Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), created by the United States and Israel. The GHF system circumvents the UN system, which "has not failed, but [Israel] has prevented it from functioning," the 111 signatory organizations assert. They say only 28 truckloads of humanitarian aid enter Gaza per day, an amount "completely insufficient for more than two million people." Before October 7, 2023, about 500 trucks entered Gaza daily, and even then the aid was insufficient to ensure decent living standards.
Precisely yesterday, Tuesday, the United Nations confirmed that More than 1,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed in food lines. at GHF distribution points, and UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated that "the horror" facing Palestinians in the Gaza Strip is unprecedented. The shortage of food and basic goods in the Palestinian enclave is extreme, and, according to today's statement, malnutrition rates are "record-high." "Markets are empty, garbage is piling up, and adults are fainting from hunger and dehydration in the streets," they stated.
Deaths are piling up
To date, Israel's military campaign in Gaza has caused the deaths of nearly 60,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. Yesterday, the director of Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, stated that 21 children had died from malnutrition and hunger in just three days in the Palestinian territory, and today the Ministry of Health reported the deaths of another 10 from the same causes, increasing the total number of deaths due to hunger.
In response to the situation, Hamas has called on "all the free people of the world" to organize protests on July 25, 26, and 27 "until the siege and hunger end" in Gaza. The United States special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, will travel to Europe this week for talks on a ceasefire and humanitarian corridors in Gaza, and may later visit the region, the US State Department announced yesterday.
