Today, the foreign ministers of 25 countries—including Austria, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland—said in a joint statement that the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza “must end now,” arguing civilians’ suffering has “reached new depths.”
In the statement, the nations’ foreign ministers wrote that “the suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths. The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability, and deprives Gazans of human dignity.... We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food.” It is “horrifying” that “over 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid.”
Further, “The Israeli government’s denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable. Israel must comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law.” It calls on Israel to “immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid and to urgently enable the UN and humanitarian NGOs to do their life-saving work safely and effectively.”
Otherwise, it condemned settlers’ violent activity in the West Bank and declared: “Proposals to remove the Palestinian population into a ‘humanitarian city’ are completely unacceptable. Permanent forced displacement is a violation of international humanitarian law.”
