The Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) in the Occupied Palestinian Territory on Sunday issued a stark warning about the deepening humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, as Israeli authorities maintain a blockade on the delivery of humanitarian aid and commercial goods for more than two months. In a statement, HCT, which coordinates relief efforts in Gaza and the West Bank, also condemned Israeli efforts to dismantle the current aid system.
“For nine weeks now, Israeli authorities have blocked all supplies from entering Gaza, no matter how vital to people’s survival. Bakeries have shut. Community kitchens have closed. Warehouses stand empty. Children have gone hungry,” the Humanitarian Country Team said.
“Israeli officials have sought to shut down the existing aid distribution system run by the United Nations and its humanitarian partners and have us agree to deliver supplies through Israeli hubs under conditions set by the Israeli military, once the government agrees to re-open crossings.”
The HCT said the design of the plan as presented will mean that large parts of Gaza, including the less mobile and most vulnerable, will continue to go without supplies, while it violates fundamental humanitarian principles and appears designed to increase control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic - as part of a military strategy.
“It is dangerous, driving civilians into militarized zones to collect rations, threatening lives, including those of humanitarian workers, while further entrenching forced displacement,” the statement said.
Both United Nations Secretary-General AntĂłnio Guterres and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher have made it clear that UN agencies and major non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working under the Humanitarian Country Team will not participate in any scheme that does not adhere to the global humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality.
“The humanitarian movement is independent, impartial and neutral. We believe that all civilians are equally worthy of protection. We remain ready to save as many lives as we can, despite the risks,” said Tom Fletcher, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, on Thursday.
“But as the UN Secretary-General has made clear, the latest modality proposed by Israeli authorities does not meet the minimum bar for principled humanitarian support.”
In the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), the heads of all UN entities and NGOs under the Humanitarian Country Team have unanimously affirmed this position, stressing that “humanitarian action responds to people’s needs, wherever they are.”
“Our teams remain in Gaza, ready to again scale up the delivery of critical supplies and services: food, water, health, nutrition, protection and more. We have significant stocks ready to enter as soon as the blockade is lifted,” the HCT statement said Sunday.
“We urge world leaders to use their influence to make that happen. The time is now.”
The Humanitarian Country Team is a strategic and operational decision-making and oversight forum led by the Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). It brings together the heads of UN agencies and international and Palestinian NGOs operating in the humanitarian sector in Gaza and the West Bank (including East Jerusalem).
Over the past 18 months, Israel's war on Gaza and its severe restrictions on humanitarian aid, followed by a complete blockade of supplies since March 2, have devastated the lives of more than 2.1 million Palestinians, while destroying nearly all the essential infrastructure on which civilians depend for survival.
Israel, as the occupying power, has clear obligations under international law, including to ensure the availability of food, safe water, medical supplies and public health services, and to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid when it is not otherwise provided.
With the cessation of food aid, remaining stocks in Gaza have run out and the rest are rapidly depleting, starving the population of the territory and putting Palestinians that have survived the denial of humanitarian aid, targeted killings, indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, at increasing risk of death by starvation, especially vulnerable groups such as children.
Marking two months of the Israeli blockade, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Friday that the blocking "is a siege on children, women, older people and ordinary men. They are collectively punished for being born and living in Gaza, something not of their making."
“The State of Israel must lift the siege and allow a flow of basic supplies. The hostages must be released,” urged UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini in a statement that was also posted on social media.
“With every additional day, the siege will silently kill more children and women in addition to those killed by bombardments. It’s time to show we haven’t completely lost our humanity.”
Meanwhile, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned on Monday that airstrikes and other attacks are continuing across the Gaza Strip, with scores of civilians reportedly killed and hundreds injured, including children, over the weekend.
For a year and a half, an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe has been ravaging Gaza, with people dying from widespread violence, lack of medical care, disease, starvation, dehydration and hypothermia.
UN officials have previously described the situation in Gaza as "apocalyptic," "hell on earth," "beyond catastrophic," and said that the humanitarian community is "running out of words to describe what is happening in Gaza."
UN officials have emphasized that "Palestinian civilians are dehumanized to the point of being somehow unworthy of survival," describing the situation in Gaza as "a war without limits," and noting that they are "witnessing acts of war in Gaza that show an utter disregard for human life."
More than 2 million people remain trapped, bombed and starving inside the territory, while Israeli attacks on civilians, aid workers, UN personnel, hospitals, ambulances, and other civilian targets continue with impunity.
On Sunday, Israel's nine-week siege of the territory marked by far the longest period in history, during which the Israeli government has blocked all aid and goods from entering Gaza while hostilities continue and aid supplies have run out. Now life-saving services are collapsing.
Prior to the Israeli government's total siege, humanitarian aid to Gaza had been obstructed by the Israeli authorities for more than a year, in gross violation of international humanitarian law and in apparent use as a method of warfare, a war crime.
Leading human rights organizations and experts point out that the total blockade of humanitarian aid is not only a flagrant war crime, but part of a genocide against the population of Gaza, as the actions of the Israeli government apparently aim at deliberately inflicting living conditions calculated to bring about the physical destruction of a group or part of a group, as defined in the Genocide Convention.
At the same time, Israel's war in Gaza continues to be characterized by grave war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israeli military and government officials.
Some of the worst crimes perpetrated by Israeli officials in Gaza include collective punishment of civilians, use of starvation as a method of warfare, denial of humanitarian aid, targeted killings of civilians, indiscriminate killings of civilians, targeted killings of aid workers, disproportionate attacks, deliberate attacks on civilian objects, forcible transfer, torture, enforced disappearances, and other atrocity crimes.
Despite the fact that Israeli officials have been accused of committing some of the worst crimes known to humankind, the Israeli government continues to receive financial, military, and political support from the United States government and a few other allies.