The July 23 lead editorial of China’s semi-official Global Times is singularly blunt: “The Humanitarian Catastrophe in Gaza Must Not Be Allowed To Continue.”
Global Times reviews some well-known facts: Gaza’s humanitarian situation is in “accelerating breakdown,” with the last lifelines “keeping people alive … collapsing,” as UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned on July 21. Nearly one person in three in Gaza goes days without eating; 93% of households in Gaza have no access to water. Because of Israeli evacuation orders and military operations, 87% of Gazans—some 2.1 million civilians—live “crammed into a small area with no medical care or medicine, where public services have completely collapsed….
“Hunger has been `weaponized’—food distribution points have become `death traps,’ where people are repeatedly shot dead before they can even receive a bag of flour…. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa confirmed that more than 995 Palestinians had been shot and killed while trying to receive aid at Israeli-controlled distribution sites. This constitutes a blatant violation of international humanitarian law and a direct assault on the moral bottom line of humanity.”
What is happening in Gaza has “shaken the foundations of international fairness and justice….
“The top priority now is to achieve a permanent ceasefire and ensure the rapid, large-scale, and safe delivery of humanitarian aid.”
