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Israel’s siege now blocks 83% of food aid reaching Gaza, new data reveals

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Palestinians inspect the damage following an Israeli airstrike on the El-Remal aera in Gaza City on October 9, 2023. Israel continued to battle Hamas fighters on October 10 and massed tens of thousands of troops and heavy armour around the Gaza Strip after vowing a massive blow over the Palestinian militants' surprise attack. Photo by Naaman Omar apaimages. licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Palestinians inspect the damage following an Israeli airstrike on the El-Remal aera in Gaza City on October 9, 2023. Israel continued to battle Hamas fighters on October 10 and massed tens of thousands of troops and heavy armour around the Gaza Strip after vowing a massive blow over the Palestinian militants’ surprise attack. Photo by Naaman Omar apaimages. licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

15 aid organisations demand international pressure for an immediate ceasefire, arms embargo, and end to Israel’s systematic aid obstruction

New data has revealed the scale of aid obstruction, and the consequential drastic fall in aid entering Gaza. This is driving a humanitarian disaster, with the entire population of Gaza facing hunger and disease, and almost half a million at risk of starvation. 

While Israeli military attacks on Gaza intensify, lifesaving food, medicine, medical supplies, fuel, and tents have been systematically blocked from entering for almost a year. 

Data analysis by organisations working in Gaza has found that as a consequence of the Israeli government’s obstruction of aid: 

  • 83% of required food aid does not make it into Gaza, up from 34% in 2023.This reduction means people in Gaza have gone from having an average of two meals a day to just one meal every other day. An estimated 50,000 children aged between 6-59 months urgently require treatment for malnutrition by the end of the year.
  • 65% of the insulin required and half of the required blood supply are not available in Gaza. 
  • Availability of hygiene items has dropped to 15% of the amount available in September 2023. One million women are now going without the hygiene supplies they need. 
  • Only around 1,500 hospital beds in Gaza remain operational, compared to around 3,500 beds in 2023 which was already well below sufficient to meet the needs of a population of more than 2 million people. By comparison, cities of similar size, such as Chicago and Paris average 5 to 8 times more beds than in Gaza. 
  • 1.87 million people are in need of shelter with at least 60% of homes destroyed or damaged (January 2024). Yet tents for around just 25,000 people have entered Gaza since May 2024.

A record low average of 69 aid trucks per day entered Gaza in August 2024, compared to 500 per working day last year; which was already not enough to meet people’s needs. In August more than 1 million people did not receive any food rations in southern and central Gaza. 

Now, only 17 out of 36 hospitals remain partially functional. Critical infrastructure such as water networks, sanitation facilities and bread mills have been razed to the ground. 

While humanitarian needs are ever increasing, agencies have detailed six main ways their life-saving aid is systematically obstructed on a daily basis.

These include the denial of safety, with more than 40,000 Palestinians and nearly 300 aid workers killed since last October; the sharp tightening of a 17-year blockade to a full siege, which prevents aid from entering Gaza; delays and denials which restrict the movement of aid around Gaza; tightly restrictive and unpredictable control of imports; the destruction of public infrastructure such as schools and hospitals; and the displacement of civilians and humanitarian workers (witnessed again in recent displacement orders from the so-called “humanitarian zone” in Deir el-Balah.)

Ahead of the UN General Assembly in New York this week, aid agencies are calling on governments to demand Israel end aid obstruction and to:

  • Secure an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Gaza. 
  • Implement an arms embargo and end the export of weapons and military equipment that risk being used in violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law. 
  • Demand compliance with the International Court of Justice’s findings and recommendations, an end to the Israeli government’s siege of Gaza, and heed the call of the ICJ in its advisory opinion to end the occupation of Palestinian territory. 

Jolien Veldwijik, CARE Country Director in the West Bank and Gaza, said:

“The situation was intolerable long before last October’s escalation and is beyond catastrophic now. Over 11 months, we have reached shocking levels of conflict, displacement, disease and hunger. Yet, aid is still not getting in, and humanitarian workers are risking their lives to do their jobs while attacks and violations of international law intensify. Aid, which is urgently required for 2.2 million people at risk of dying in the coming weeks and months, should never be politicised. We demand an immediate and sustained ceasefire, and the free flow of humanitarian aid into and throughout Gaza.” 

Amjad Al Shawa, the director of the Palestinian NGOs Network (PNGO), an umbrella organisation of 30 Palestinian NGOs and a partner of ActionAid, said:

 “There is a shortage of all humanitarian items. We are overwhelmed [with] these needs and [these] urgent requirements…People [are] starving due to the shortage of aid…100% of the population depend on humanitarian aid…It’s the worst situation that we [witnessed] during …. the Israel war in Gaza.”

  1. CARE International
  2. Save the Children
  3. ActionAid
  4. Christian Aid
  5. War Child
  6. Islamic Relief
  7. HelpAge International 
  8. American Friends Service Committee
  9. Oxfam
  10. DanChurchAid
  11. Norwegian Church Aid
  12. Mennonite Central Committee
  13. Danish Refugee Council
  14. Norwegian Refugee Council
  15. KinderUSA

Continue ReadingIsrael’s siege now blocks 83% of food aid reaching Gaza, new data reveals

UN Experts Warn Israel Risks ‘Pariah’ Status Over Gaza Genocide

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Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

United Nations special rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese addresses the European Parliament in Brussels on April 10, 2024.
 (Photo: Thierry Monasse/Getty Images)

One expert even asked if Israel’s United Nations membership should be reconsidered given the country “seems to have zero respect” for the world body.

United Nations human rights experts warned Monday that Israel risks becoming an international “pariah” over its ongoing assault on Gaza—for which it is on trial for genocide at the world body’s International Court of Justice.

The special rapporteurs—who are appointed by the U.N. but do not speak on its behalf—condemned Israel’s human rights violations against Palestinians, as well as its blatant disregard for international law and multiple rulings from the ICJ.

These include an advisory opinion that the 57-year Israeli occupation of Palestine is an illegal form of apartheid that must immediately end, and orders for Israeli forces to avoid genocidal actions in Gaza and to immediately halt the Rafah offensive.

George Katrougalos, the U.N. special rapporteur on the promotion of democratic and equitable international order and a former Greek foreign minister, said during a press conference that the “first obligation” for harmonious relations between nations “is for everybody to respect the United Nations rules.”

“This is not happening in the case of Israel,” Katrougalos noted.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian relief says that around 200 of its staff members have been killed in more than 450 Israeli attacks on agency facilities since October. More than 500 Palestinians have been killed while seeking shelter under the U.N. flag.

Overall, more than 146,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded by Israeli forces since October. Almost all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been forcibly displaced, and Israel’s “complete siege” has caused widespread starvation—sometimes deadly—and sickness throughout the coastal enclave.

Comparing the international community’s reaction to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s war on Gaza, Katrougalos stressed that “we cannot anymore stand this kind of double standards and hypocrisy.”

“I trust that the progressive and democratic citizens of Israel would not let their country become a pariah like South Africa [had] become during the times of apartheid,” he added. South Africa is leading the genocide case against Israel at the ICJ.

Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, said that “I think it’s unavoidable for Israel to become a pariah in the face of its continuous, relentless, vilifying assault of the United Nations, on top of millions of Palestinians.”

“Shockingly, in the face of the abyss reached in the OPT… most member states remained inactive at best, or [are] actively aiding and assisting Israel’s criminal conduct,” she continued.

“Should there be a consideration of its membership as part of this organization, which Israel seems to have zero respect for?” Albanese added.

Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, the U.N. special rapporteur on the rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, warned that “we are blowing up the United Nations if we don’t react” to Israel’s human rights violations.

Arrojo-Agudo added that, as with starvation, Israel is using deprivation of water as a “weapon” and disavowed Israel’s claim that Hamas—which led the October 7 attack on Israel—has “completely mismanaged water in Gaza.”

The special rapporteurs’ remarks came as representatives of U.N. member states gathered in New York for this year’s annual General Assembly. General debate sessions are set for next week.

Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue ReadingUN Experts Warn Israel Risks ‘Pariah’ Status Over Gaza Genocide

Amnesty Urges War Crimes Probe of ‘Indiscriminate’ Israeli Attacks on Gaza Camps

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Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under a CC licence.

A Palestinian woman holds the shrouded body of a child killed by Israeli bombardment of the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 26, 2024. (Photo: Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images)

The human rights group said Israeli forces “failed to distinguish between civilians and military objectives by using unguided munitions in an area full of civilians sheltering in tents.”

In an investigation focusing on a pair of Israeli massacres of forcibly displaced Palestinians in Gaza, Amnesty International on Monday urged the International Criminal Court—whose chief prosecutor has already applied for warrants to arrest Israeli and Hamas leaders—to open a war crimes probe of the attacks, which it said were likely “indiscriminate” and “disproportionate.”

“On May 26, 2024, two Israeli airstrikes on the Kuwaiti Peace Camp, a makeshift camp for internally displaced people in Tal al-Sultan in west Rafah, killed at least 36 people—including six children—and injured more than 100,” noted Amnesty, which early in the assault on Gaza found “damning evidence” of Israeli war crimes including indiscriminate killing of civilians.

The Tal al-Sultan attack, which hit an Israeli-designated “safe zone,” ignited an inferno that burned people alive inside the tents in which they were sheltering. One survivor told Amnesty that “there were so many dead people all around us,” many of them “in pieces and in pools of blood.”

“The military could and should have taken all feasible precautions to avoid, or at least minimize, harm to civilians.”

The Amnesty report states that the airstrikes, “which targeted two Hamas commanders staying amid displaced civilians, consisted of two U.S.-made GBU-39 guided bombs” and that “the use of these munitions, which project deadly fragments over a wide area, in a camp housing civilians in overcrowded temporary shelters likely constituted a disproportionate and indiscriminate attack, and should be investigated as a war crime.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the Tal al-Sultan massacre a “tragic mistake.”

“On May 28, in the second incident investigated, the Israeli military fired at least three tank shells at a location in the al-Mawasi area of Rafah, which was designated by the Israeli military as a ‘humanitarian zone,'” Amnesty continued. “The strikes killed 23 civilians—including 12 children, seven women, and four men—and injured many more.”

“Amnesty International’s research found that the apparent targets of the attack were one Hamas and one Islamic Jihad fighter,” the publication notes. “This strike, which failed to distinguish between civilians and military objectives by using unguided munitions in an area full of civilians sheltering in tents, likely was indiscriminate and should be investigated as a war crime.”

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s senior director for research, advocacy, policy, and campaigns, said in a statement that “while these strikes may have targeted Hamas and Islamic Jihad commanders and fighters, once again displaced Palestinian civilians seeking shelter and safety have paid with their lives.”

“The Israeli military would have been fully aware that the use of bombs that project deadly shrapnel across hundreds of meters and unguided tank shells would kill and injure a large number of civilians sheltering in overcrowded settings lacking protection,” she added. “The military could and should have taken all feasible precautions to avoid, or at least minimize, harm to civilians.”

Israel—whose 325-day bombardment, invasion, and siege of Gaza has left more than 144,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing and millions more suffering forced displacement, starvation, and disease—is currently on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Netherlands.

In January, the ICJ ordered Israel to “take all measures within its power” to uphold its obligations under Article II of the Genocide Convention. Israel’s far-right government and military have been accused by human rights groups of ignoring the order.

As Israeli forces launched a major ground invasion of Rafah four months later, the ICJ issued another order for Israel to “immediately halt its military offensive” in the city, where around 1.5 million forcibly displaced and local Palestinian residents were sheltering. Instead of heeding the order, Israel ramped up its assault on Rafah.

At the International Criminal Court, Prosecutor Karim Khan is urging the tribunal to promptly act upon his May application for warrants to arrest Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders—at least one of whom, political chief Ismail Haniyeh, was subsequently assassinated by Israel.

Guevara-Rosas on Monday reminded Israel of its legal responsibility to protect noncombatants.

“The avoidable deaths and injuries of civilians is a stark and tragic reminder that, under international humanitarian law, the presence of fighters in the targeted area does not absolve the Israeli military of its obligations to protect civilians,” she said.

“All parties to the conflict must take all feasible precautions to protect civilians,” Guevara-Rosas added. “This also includes the obligation of Hamas and other armed groups to avoid, to the extent feasible, locating military objectives and fighters in or near densely populated areas.”

The new Amnesty report was published on the same day that Human Rights Watch called upon the ICC to investigate alleged and documented incidents of Israeli forces torturing imprisoned Palestinian medical workers, including at the notorious Sde Teiman prison, where guards are accused of war crimes including murder, rape, and torture.

Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under a CC licence.

Continue ReadingAmnesty Urges War Crimes Probe of ‘Indiscriminate’ Israeli Attacks on Gaza Camps

ICC Prosecutor Urges Swift Ruling on Warrants for Israeli, Hamas Leaders

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Original article by JESSICA CORBETT republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (L) visit the site of a shooting in Hebron, West Bank on August 21, 2023. (Photo: Amos Ben-Gershom (GPO)/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

“Any unjustified delay in these proceedings detrimentally affects the rights of victims,” the chief prosecutor wrote.

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor argued in a Friday filing that pretrial judges have the jurisdiction to rule on the arrest warrants he is seeking for Israeli and Hamas leaders and must “urgently render its decisions.”

The October 7 attack and Israel’s retaliation in the Gaza Strip led the ICC’s Karim Khan to apply for warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant as well as three Hamas leaders—Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri (also known Deif), Ismail Haniyeh, and Yahya Sinwar—in May. Since then, Israel has assassinated Haniyeh and also claimed to have killed Deif, which Hamas denies.

The Associated Pressreported that Khan’s new brief “came in response to legal arguments filed by dozens of countries, academics, victims’ groups, and rights groups either rejecting or supporting the court’s power to issue arrest warrants in its investigation into the war in Gaza and the October 7 attacks by Hamas in Israel.”

The prosecutor wrote that “Israel has occupied Palestine since 1967,” and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled last month that “Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT),” which includes Gaza, “is unlawful.”

“It is settled law that the court has jurisdiction in this situation,” the prosecutor asserted, citing a February 2021 decision. “Any unjustified delay in these proceedings detrimentally affects the rights of victims.”

“The situation in the OPT, including Gaza, is catastrophic, owing in large part to the ongoing criminality described in the applications,” he added. “The issuance of the requested arrest warrants could avert further harm to the victims who remain in Gaza and to those who were forced to leave but continue to suffer physical and mental harm.”

The Hamas-led October attack on Israel killed over 1,100 people and militants took over 240 others hostage, more than 100 of whom remain in Gaza. Since then, the Israel Defense Forces has slaughtered at least 40,265 Palestinians and injured another 93,144, according to local officials, while leveling civilian infrastructure across the coastal enclave.

The AP noted that “Israel is not a member of the court, so even if the arrest warrants are issued, Netanyahu and Gallant do not face any immediate risk of prosecution. But the threat of arrest could make it difficult for the Israeli leaders to travel abroad.”

U.S. political leaders including President Joe Biden have faced criticism for not only giving Israel billions of dollars in weapons to wage war but also condemning the ICC prosecutor’s pursuit of arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.

In addition to the potential ICC warrants, Israel faces an ongoing South Africa-led genocide case at the ICJ.

Original article by JESSICA CORBETT republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Continue ReadingICC Prosecutor Urges Swift Ruling on Warrants for Israeli, Hamas Leaders

As Gaza Death Toll Tops 40,000, Congress Urged to Block New Weapons to Israel

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Original article by BRETT WILKINS republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Activists demand an end to U.S. arms transfers to Israel during a May 2, 2024 protest outside the White House in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Amnesty International USA)

“U.S. arms transfers to Israel have fueled unimaginable suffering in Gaza, including staggering levels of civilian harm,” said one embargo advocate.

As the Palestinian death toll from Israel’s 314-day assault on Gaza passed 40,000—a figure experts say is likely a vast undercount—human rights groups this week decried the Biden administration’s approval of $20 billion worth of new weapons for Israel and renewed pleas for Congress to block further arms transfers to the nation on trial for genocide at the World Court.

On Tuesday—just days after Israeli forces used at least one U.S.-supplied bomb in an airstrike on a Gaza City school that killed scores of forcibly displaced Palestinian civilians sheltering there—the Biden administration notified Congress of the pending sale of a new weapons package that includes dozens of F-15 fighter jets, tens of thousands of 120mm mortar shells, over 32,700 tank shells, and 30 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles.

Since October, Congress and the Biden administration have approved more than $14 billion in unconditional military aid to Israel. President Joe Biden has signed off on more than 100 arms transfers to Israel during that period. This, atop the $3.8 billion in annual armed aid the U.S. already gives to the key Middle Eastern ally.

“Israel used U.S.-made weapons in May when it slaughtered Palestinian families sheltering in tent camps in Rafah,” Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) said Wednesday. “Israel used U.S.-made weapons when it bombed the al-Mutanabbi school in Khan Younis in early July, killing over two dozen displaced Palestinians seeking refuge there. And it used U.S.-made weapons on Saturday to murder over 100 Palestinians while they prayed.”

“Biden continues to send weapons to Israel, and both political parties—Republicans and Democrats—have cheered on the Israeli government’s slaughter and genocide of Palestinians in Gaza,” JVP continued. “This is a U.S.-perpetrated genocide as much as it is an Israeli one.”

“But the Democratic voting base is calling for something different, and we have seen the progressive and increasingly mainstream wing of the party begin to echo this need,” the group said. “We are playing a critical role in driving the Democratic Party to finally catch up to the demands of its own base.”

“Right now, we have an opportunity to re-center Gaza in the national conversation and continue building pressure on the Biden administration, on [Vice President] Kamala Harris, and on Democratic members of Congress to support an immediate arms embargo,” JVP added.

While Harris has expressed sympathy for Palestinians suffering what she called a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, the vice president and Democratic presidential nominee, like Biden, has proclaimed her “unwavering” support for Israel. One aide said last week that Harris does not support an arms embargo.

“The decision to approve yet another massive sale of arms to Israel is appalling and a blatant violation of U.S. and international law and policy,” Annie Shiel, the U.S. advocacy director at the Center for Civilians in Conflict, said on Thursday.

“U.S. arms transfers to Israel have fueled unimaginable suffering in Gaza, including staggering levels of civilian harm, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, and an ever-growing humanitarian catastrophe,” Shiel continued. “The U.S. is complicit in this devastation.”

“Congress must block these sales, including through the introduction of joint resolutions of disapproval,” she added, “and the Biden-Harris administration must finally end U.S. arms transfers and use its leverage to bring about an immediate cease-fire.”

The international anti-poverty NGO ActionAid said Thursday: “We are outraged and heartbroken by the staggering loss of 40,000 lives in Gaza. It is a number that is incomprehensible—every life lost is an individual tragedy.”

“But this is not an inevitable one, it is an ongoing atrocity, and it could have been prevented,” the group continued. “Most governments across the world have refused to do the bare minimum to protect civilian life and it is to our collective shame. We are losing confidence each day in the concept of justice.”

“We reiterate our calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities and urge all governments to meet their obligations under international law and use all available means to take immediate and decisive action to ensure the safety and security of all civilians,” ActionAid said.

“We call for the imposition of sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, on Israeli officials linked to alleged violations of international humanitarian law,” the NGO added. “Every day that you choose to avoid this as a reality, this death toll will keep rising until there is nobody left in Gaza alive.”

In addition to the South Africa-led genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan has applied for warrants to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and for three Hamas leaders, at least one of whom has been assassinated by Israeli forces.

The Biden administration and numerous members of Congress have condemned the courts’ pursuit of justice for Israel and its leaders. In June, 42 Democrats joined nearly every Republican in the House of Representatives in passing a bill that would sanction ICC officials over Khan’s application for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.

In addition to rights groups, a coalition of journalists, news outlets, and press freedom organizations on Thursday implored the Biden administration to immediately halt arms transfers to Israel.

As the tight 2024 presidential race between Harris and former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, heads toward the home stretch, a survey commissioned by the Institute for Middle Eastern Understanding Policy Project and conducted by YouGov revealed this week that Democratic and Independent voters in the key swing states of Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania would be more willing to vote for Harris if she backed an arms embargo on Israel.

Original article by BRETT WILKINS republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue ReadingAs Gaza Death Toll Tops 40,000, Congress Urged to Block New Weapons to Israel