EU Humanitarian Aid Operations issues joint statement on aid restrictions in Gaza News
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EU Humanitarian Aid Operations issues joint statement on aid restrictions in Gaza

The Directorate-General for the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations on Tuesday issued a joint statement addressing Israeli restrictions preventing NGO’s from providing life-saving aid to Gaza.

The joint statement was signed by 27 “partners on aid to Gaza,” including foreign ministers of 24 countries. Among these were the UK, France, the Netherlands and Canada. The statement stressed the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, currently worsening amid conditions of famine.

The signatories said that action is needed to prevent the starvation of Palestinians, but new “restrictive registration requirements” are preventing NGO’s from assisting. It warned that essential NGO’s may even be forced out of the Occupied Palestinian Territories as a result of the restrictions.

The statement urged Israel to allow unimpeded aid into Gaza by authorizing “all international NGO aid shipments”, stressing the importance of providing essential aid, including “food, nutrition supplies, shelter, fuel, clean water, medicine, and medical equipment” to civilians in Gaza. The signatories also called for Israel to allow essential humanitarian actors to operate in Gaza: “Immediate, permanent and concrete steps must be taken to facilitate safe, large-scale access for the UN, international NGOs and humanitarian partners.”

Israel imposed an aid blockade in March, preventing international organizations, including the UN, from delivering vital aid to Gaza. The UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) warned of a drastic increase in malnutrition deaths, with nearly 100 children dying of starvation since the start of August, “[f]or over 150 days, not a single truck from UNRWA has been permitted to deliver food, medicine or other essentials into Gaza. This denial of access is costing lives every single day.”

Further, there have been reports of violence at Israel-backed aid distribution centers, with targeted attacks against civilians attempting to receive aid. The UN warned that, under the 1949 Geneva Conventions, “willful impeding of access to life-saving aid may constitute war crimes”.

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