On October 13, the U.S. Secretaries of State and Defence issued a letter to Israel demanding progress within 30 days on concrete measures to reverse the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Gaza.
On the deadline for compliance, today, Tuesday, November 12, eight humanitarian organizations have released a scorecard assessing progress against these measures over the past 30 days, concluding that Israel has failed to comply with its ally’s demands – at enormous human cost for Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
The facts are clear: the humanitarian situation in Gaza is now at its worst point since the war began in October 2023. We are calling on the U.S. government to make an immediate determination that Israel is in violation of its assurances under National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM-20) and Section 620i of the Foreign Assistance Act.
“This new analysis clearly demonstrates that the Israeli government is violating its obligations under U.S. and international law to facilitate humanitarian relief for suffering Palestinians in Gaza,” said Refugees International president and former senior USAID official Jeremy Konyndyk. “With experts again projecting imminent famine in north Gaza, there is no time to lose. The United States must impose immediate restrictions on security cooperation with Israel as required under Section 620i of the Foreign Assistance Act.”
“Our local medical teams and international volunteers in Gaza have witnessed firsthand the complete failure by the Israeli authorities to ensure the delivery of critical supplies including food, water and medicines, and to protect civilians and medical spaces,” said Dr. Zaher Sahloul, president and co-founder of MedGlobal. “Our teams are living through the relentless bombing of hospitals, and our medics continue to treat wounded women and children every day. These are egregious violations of the cornerstone principle of international humanitarian law, which protects civilians in time of war. It’s critical that the Biden administration take action to uphold U.S. and international law, and do everything possible to push for the full provision of aid to Gaza’s desperate people.”
“I witnessed during my visit to Gaza last week the deliberate starvation of almost 2 million civilians, whilst the bombardment continues,” said NRC Secretary General Jan Egeland. “There is barely any aid crossing into Gaza. The little that does get through is often looted, as the occupying power has obliterated the Palestinian police and refuses to secure, or provide secure access routes to, places where humanitarian organisation could distribute aid to a starving population.”
“Our teams are doing everything possible, but we are stymied at every turn,” said Mercy Corps Chief Executive Officer Tjada D’Oyen McKenna. “Despite abundant clarity and evidence from organizations like our own operating in Gaza about the impediments to aid delivery, the U.S. government has not done enough to hold Israel to account. The clear and transparent failures to meet the United States’ own standards must now lead to greater action, or risk pushing millions of people toward preventable suffering and death. The U.S. government must do everything in its power to ensure the unfettered provision of essential aid to people in desperate need.”
“The U.S. government once again laid out basic measures for how the government of Israel must follow international law and allow for aid delivery in Gaza,” said Oxfam America President & CEO Abby Maxman. “Since then, we have seen Israeli forces accelerate their efforts to bombard, depopulate, deprive, and erase the Palestinian population of the North Gaza governorate. We are witnessing a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Oxfam and partner organizations are unable to provide any support to the remaining civilians in the North Gaza governorate, where people are dying every day. Access to the rest of Gaza is also severely restricted, with civilians facing starvation and relentless violence. The U.S. must finally make this overdue call to suspend deadly arms sales to Israel or be complicit in the horrific atrocities unfolding before our eyes.”
“This scorecard is further evidence that systemic impediments on the humanitarian system in Gaza are making a deadly conflict even deadlier,” said Janti Soeripto, President and CEO of Save the Children. “Our staff and humanitarian peers in Gaza risk their lives every day to help families survive unimaginable conditions. They need the support and serious commitment to protecting innocent lives that international humanitarian law requires. The Biden administration must do everything in its power to improve unimpeded humanitarian access – especially as winter and famine loom – and to live up to its own standards and laws. Enough is enough. The facts are there. Adults have been failing children for over a year. What more will it take?”
“Anera’s humanitarian workers in Gaza have spent the past year expending superhuman effort in subhuman conditions to provide assistance to civilians,” said Anera President and CEO Sean Carroll. “Now, this well-researched, independent assessment of whether conditions for, and safe delivery of, sufficient aid into Gaza have improved over the past 30 days shows that, emphatically and alarmingly, the answer is ‘No.’ In the past month, we’ve seen families throughout Gaza, and particularly in the north, subjected to increasingly horrific conditions. This is a damning indictment of Israel’s failure to follow international humanitarian law and to respond to the critical and reasonable demands of its greatest ally, the United States. The consequences will be more innocent lives ended and destroyed. They should also include restrictions on Israel’s ability to continue prosecution of this war in a manner that is increasingly being seen as consistent with ethnic cleansing.”
“Humanitarian organizations who work in crises around the world have, for more than a year, tried to call attention to the enormity of the suffering in Gaza and the singularity of the conditions hindering an effective and urgent humanitarian response,” said CARE President and CEO Michelle Nunn. “These calls have been unheeded for too long. Now, the U.S. government has created a critical opportunity to respond to the facts on the ground, and to insist upon accountability to our own laws. It is imperative to act now to prevent further loss of innocent life, the deepening of an extraordinary humanitarian crisis, and the continued erosion of U.S. credibility as an upholder of International Humanitarian Law.”
For interviews, please contact Lucy Brown at lucyb@oxfam.org.au or 0478 190 099.
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