Major international aid groups warned on Thursday that it was now almost impossible to work in Gaza.
Jerusalem:
Leading international aid groups warned on Thursday that it was now almost impossible to work in Gaza, as one accused countries that provide weapons to Israel of being complicit in “what amounts to genocide”.
As 13 major humanitarian organizations condemned Israel’s restrictions on aid entering the Gaza Strip, Isabelle Defourny, president of the NGO Doctors Without Borders, spoke of the risk of genocide.
An Israeli airstrike on Monday killed seven aid workers at the World Central Kitchen (WCK) in the United States, sparking outcry.
US President Joe Biden said he was “angry and heartbroken” by the attack.
But the US, UK, France and other countries providing military support to Israel are “morally and politically complicit in what we see as genocide,” said De Forny, the president of France’s Doctors Without Borders.
Aid groups also asked Israel to abandon plans for a ground offensive in Rafah, southern Gaza, where more than a million civilians have taken refuge.
According to AFP’s statistics on official Israeli data, Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on October 7, erupting the bloodiest Gaza war in history, resulting in the deaths of approximately 1,170 Israelis and foreigners, most of them civilians.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign aimed at destroying Hamas has killed at least 33,037 people, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
– ‘Absolute horror’ –
While WCK has suspended operations in Gaza, 13 United Appeals organizations, including Oxfam and Save the Children, have said they will withdraw.
Defoni said Médecins Sans Frontières has lost five of its 300 staff in Gaza and said the killing of seven WCK staff was not surprising.
“Currently (Gaza) does not have the conditions to provide humanitarian assistance,” she said.
“Because over the past six months we have witnessed the choices Israel has made in waging war against entire populations that have been trapped, deprived of food and subjected to massive bombings.
“Gaza is gradually becoming uninhabitable for human life,” she added, “and has crossed the threshold of absolute terror.”
Defoni said the ICJ ordered “measures to prevent genocide” in January and again last week.
But she added that “Israel has done just the opposite so far, continuing to block humanitarian aid and destroy vital civilian infrastructure, as demonstrated by the attack on WCK and the destruction of Al-Shifa hospital”.
Israel has strongly rejected accusations that it is blocking aid and claims humanitarian organizations have failed to distribute it.
In war-torn Gaza, where large areas are in ruins, 2.4 million Palestinians have been bombed for six months while facing severe shortages of food, water, fuel and other basic supplies.
After the ICJ’s ruling in January, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the accusations against Israel were “not only false, they are outrageous and should be rejected by decent people everywhere”.
– ‘A war against civilians’ –
Charity Oxfam said hungry people in northern Gaza were forced to survive on an average of 245 calories a day – less than a can of beans and a fraction of the recommended average daily intake of 2,100 calories per person.
Oxfam’s Scott Paul said nearly half of people in the north were actually “living on less”.
He added: “Is it any wonder that there is either an imminent famine or an actual famine?”
The charities called for an immediate ceasefire, saying Israel and countries that provide it with weapons “have an obligation (under international law) to protect people from atrocity crimes”.
Dr. Tanya Haji-Hassan, an American pediatric critical care physician who has been working in Gaza hospitals, said “everyone is a target” in Gaza.
“The evidence on the ground does not suggest that this is a war against Hamas, but a war against civilians.
“When you’re in the operating room, you don’t see Hamas, you see entire families’ civil registrations wiped out.
“I saw snipers shooting children and elderly people directly in the head (in the theater).”
She said she noticed “a consistent pattern of (Israeli military) targeting specific groups – health care workers, media and humanitarian aid workers.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
