United Nations organizations and international relief aid agencies warn of a looming regional war, stressing that the “appalling human suffering’ in Gaza should end.
The Principals of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) warned on Monday of the threat of an imminent wider regional escalation and renewed their demand for “an end to the appalling human suffering and humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza,” according to a statement issued by the committee.
The signatories on IASC mourned the loss of innocent people, urgently calling for “an immediate and unconditional ceasefire,” which they said is the “only way to end the suffering of civilians and save lives.”
The signatories, which included a number of United Nations organizations and other international aid relief organizations, accentuated the immense human loss in the besieged Gaza Strip citing numbers by the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
PALESTINIAN MEDIA: Nine Palestinians were killed and others injured in a series of Israeli airstrikes targeting homes and a civilian vehicle in Khan Yunis and Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip. pic.twitter.com/ZZfDlD1bWz
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) September 24, 2024
The statement indicated that over 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza, the majority of whom are civilians including women, children and elderly and occasionally entire families were killed and over 95,000 were wounded.
“Around 22,500, will require lifelong specialized rehabilitation and assistive care including individuals with severe limb injuries, amputations, spinal cord damage, traumatic brain injuries, and major burns,” the statement said.
The signatories stressed that as humanitarian organizations they face immense challenges in Gaza.
“We cannot do our jobs in the face of overwhelming need and ongoing violence,” they stated, demanding unrestricted access of humanitarian aid into the besieged Gaza Strip.
“The risk of famine persists with all 2.1 million residents still in urgent need of food and livelihood assistance as humanitarian access remains restricted,” the statement read.
The statement touched on the catastrophic human conditions during the nearly one-year raging war in the Strip.
“More than 2 million Palestinians are without protection, food, water, sanitation, shelter, health care, education, electricity and fuel – the basic necessities to survive,” the statement read.
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“Families have been forcibly displaced, time and time again, from one unsafe place to the next, with no way out,” it added pointing out that “women and girls’ dignity, safety, health and rights have been severely compromised.”
The signatories emphasized the gravity of the crumbled health care system in Gaza due to the huge challenges facing it most importantly of which the continuous Israeli aggression on the besieged enclave.
“More than 500 attacks on health care have been recorded in Gaza, the statement said.
“Aid hubs have been forced to relocate and re-build many times over; convoys carrying life-saving aid have been shot at, delayed and denied access; and relief workers have been killed in unprecedented numbers,” it continued.
“The number of aid workers killed in Gaza in the past year is the highest ever in a single crisis,” the statement added.
The signatories criticized the Israeli occupation army’s military operation in the occupied West Bank labeling it as “unnecessary and disproportionate” together with the increasing violence of illegal Jewish settlers and “house demolitions, forced displacement and discriminatory movement restrictions”, resulting in “increased fatalities and casualties.”
They warned that the raging war in the occupied Palestinian territories is endangering the future of all Palestinians and “rendering eventual recovery far from reach.”
The signatories on the IASC’s statement described the “parties’ conduct” during the genocide in Gaza as a “mockery of their claim to adhere to international humanitarian law and the minimum standards of humanity that it demands.”
They demanded the protection of civilians and the fulfillment of their needs, stressing that those in violation of international humanitarian law must be held accountable.
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“We urge world leaders, once again, to wield their influence to ensure respect for international humanitarian law, international human rights law and the rulings of the International Court of Justice – through diplomatic pressure and cooperation in ending impunity,” the signatories stated.
The statement added that consent to this war will have devastating consequences on the global level.
“Allowing the abhorrent, downward spiral caused by this war in the Occupied Palestinian Territory to continue will have unimaginable, global consequences,” it said.
“These atrocities must end, the statement concluded.
Ongoing Genocide
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 41,455 Palestinians have been killed, and 95,878 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
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