More than 100 international human rights and humanitarian organizations have called for an end to Israel’s siege of Gaza, citing widespread starvation affecting their staff. A joint letter released on July 23, signed by 109 organizations, including Amnesty International, CARE, and American Friends Service Committee, warns that the humanitarian crisis is reaching catastrophic levels. “As the Israeli government’s siege starves the people of Gaza, aid workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families,” the joint letter said. “With supplies now totally depleted, humanitarian organisations are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes.”
They also urged the immediate lifting of the Israeli blockade and allowing aid groups to do their work. “Humanitarian agencies have the capacity and supplies to respond at scale,” the statement added. “But, with access denied, we are blocked from reaching those in need, including our own exhausted and starved teams. Every day without a sustained flow means more people dying of preventable illnesses. Children starve while waiting for promises that never arrive.”
Journalists working in Gaza are facing death, too. On July 21, AFP journalists’ union warned that its colleagues working in Gaza are facing death from starvation, as a result of Israel’s blockade on the besieged Palestinian territory, reported Middle East Eye. “We have lost journalists in conflicts, we have had wounded and imprisoned in our ranks, but none of us remembers seeing a colleague die of hunger,” the Society of Journalists union, said in a statement. Following the SDJ union’s statement, AFP management said it “shares the anguish expressed by the SDJ regarding the appalling situation of its staff” and urged Israel to allow their evacuation.
World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, adding his voice to the outcry, said Gaza is suffering man-made mass starvation caused by a blockade on aid into the Palestinian enclave. “I don’t know what you would call it other than mass starvation, and it’s man-made, and that’s very clear,” Tedros told a virtual press conference live-streamed from Geneva, reported Reuters. “This is because of [the] blockade.”
The Israeli Foreign Ministry responded to the letter signed by more than 100 NGOs by describing reports of the mass starvation of NGO staff in Gaza as “the propaganda of Hamas.”
“Instead of challenging the terror organization, they embrace it as their own,” the Ministry claimed.
