(Adnkronos) – Over 130 NGOs, including Save the Children, the international organization that has been fighting for over 100 years to save children at risk and guarantee them a future, are calling for “immediate action to end Israel’s deadly aid distribution program in Gaza (including the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation), restore UN-led coordination mechanisms, and lift the Israeli government’s blockade on aid and commercial supplies.” The 400 aid distribution points operating during the temporary ceasefire in Gaza have now been replaced by just four military-controlled distribution sites, forcing two million people into overcrowded and militarized areas, exposed daily to the risk of gunfire and becoming victims while trying to access food, and other life-saving supplies are being denied, Save the Children denounces in a statement.
Today, Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve to death or risk being shot while desperately trying to get food to feed their families. The weeks following the launch of the Israeli distribution program have been among the deadliest and most violent since October 2023. In less than four weeks, more than 500 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 4,000 injured just trying to access or distribute food. Israeli armed forces and armed groups, some of which allegedly operate with the support of Israeli authorities, now systematically open fire on desperate civilians who risk everything to survive.
The humanitarian system is being deliberately and systematically dismantled by the Israeli government’s blockade and restrictions, a blockade now used to justify the closure of almost all other aid operations in favor of a deadly, militarily controlled alternative that neither protects civilians nor meets basic needs. These measures are designed to fuel a cycle of despair, danger, and death. Experienced humanitarian workers remain ready to provide large-scale life-saving assistance. Yet, more than 100 days since Israeli authorities reintroduced a near-total blockade on aid and commercial goods, humanitarian conditions in Gaza are collapsing at a faster rate than at any time in the past 20 months.
With the Israeli government’s new plan, the statement continues, starving and weakened civilians are forced to walk for hours through dangerous terrain and active conflict zones, only to face a violent and chaotic rush to reach fenced and militarized distribution sites with a single access point. There, thousands of people are released into chaotic enclosures to fight for limited food supplies. These areas have become the scene of repeated massacres, in blatant disregard for international humanitarian law. Among the victims are orphaned children and their caregivers, and children have been injured in more than half of the attacks against civilians in these places. With Gaza’s healthcare system in ruins, many of those who are shot are left to bleed to death, out of reach of ambulances and deprived of life-saving medical care.
Amid extreme hunger and famine-like conditions, many families tell us they are now too weak to compete for food rations. Those who manage to get food often return with only a few basic necessities, almost impossible to prepare without clean water or cooking fuel, almost exhausted, resulting in the blocking of essential life-saving services, including bakeries, water networks, ambulances, and hospitals. Families take refuge under plastic sheeting, managing makeshift kitchens in the rubble, without fuel, clean water, sanitation, or electricity.
Concentrating over two million people in further restricted areas for the chance to feed their families is not a plan to save lives. For 20 months, more than two million people have been subjected to incessant bombing, the militarization of food, water and other aid, repeated forced displacement and systematic dehumanization, all under the watchful eye of the international community. The Sphere Association, which sets minimum standards for quality humanitarian aid, has warned that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s approach does not meet fundamental humanitarian standards and principles.
This normalization of suffering must not be tolerated. States must reject the false choice between lethal, military-controlled food distributions and the total denial of aid. States must uphold their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law, including prohibitions on forced displacement, indiscriminate attacks, and obstruction of humanitarian aid. States must ensure accountability for serious violations of international law.
We, the undersigned organizations, once again call on all third states to: take concrete steps to end the suffocating siege and defend the right of civilians in Gaza to safe access to aid and protection; urge donors not to fund militarized aid programs that violate international law, do not adhere to humanitarian principles, exacerbate harm, and risk complicity in atrocities; support the restoration of a unified, UN-led coordination mechanism, based on international humanitarian law and inclusive of UNRWA, Palestinian civil society, and the wider humanitarian community, to meet people’s needs. We reiterate our urgent calls for an immediate and lasting ceasefire, for the release of all hostages and arbitrarily detained prisoners, for full large-scale humanitarian access, and for an end to the pervasive impunity that enables these atrocities and denies Palestinians their fundamental dignity.
