‘THE KILLINGS near aid distribution hubs are getting immeasurably worse and show no sign of ameliorating, considering how much Palestinians are in need of food,’ Sam Rose, director of UNRWA affairs in Gaza, warned yesterday.
A group of 169 aid and rights organisations have called for shutting down the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and accused Israeli forces and their mercenaries of ‘routinely’ opening fire on Palestinians seeking aid.
Some of the world’s most noted charitable and rights organisations, including Oxfam, Amnesty International and Save the Children, said in a joint statement that more than 500 Palestinians have been killed and almost 4,000 injured in less than four weeks while trying to obtain food from GHF in Gaza.
They accuse GHF of forcing starved and weakened civilians to trek through dangerous terrain and active conflict zones to reach the militarised distribution sites, where they have to ‘fight’ for limited food supplies in ‘chaotic enclosures’.
‘These areas have become sites of repeated massacres in blatant disregard for international humanitarian law,’ they said in their statement.
The NGOs urged a return to the UN-led aid mechanism that existed in the war-torn territory before Israel imposed a full blockade on international humanitarian assistance entering Gaza.
‘NGOs call for immediate action to end the deadly Israeli distribution scheme (including the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation) in Gaza,’ the organisations wrote in their joint statement.
Sam Rose, director of UNRWA affairs in Gaza, warned: ‘This will continue because people are so desperate to get food, they are making impossible choices and taking impossible risks.
‘And it gets worse because we had a population on the verge of starvation three months ago and those conditions are getting immeasurably worse – this needs to come to an end.
‘The militarisation of aid forces people to travel long distances through conflict zones, which means that those who are in greatest need are at greatest risk of not being able to get that assistance.
‘It is treating people in an incredibly undignified way. No aid organisation would have been allowed to continue operating in light of the number of people killed each day near its hubs, but for some reason this is allowed to pass. It’s a murderous freefall.’
British human rights lawyer Toby Cadman said the GHF may be liable for criminal prosecution over the daily killings of Palestinians by Israeli forces near aid sites it operates in Gaza.
‘The targeting of civilians, particularly those who are seeking aid, is relentless. We have seen hundreds of casualties so far,’ said Cadman.
