111 Humanitarian Groups Urge The Opening Of Access To Aid Flows To Gaza Strip

Illustration of the atrean truck humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip. (Twitter/@WFP)

More than 100 humanitarian groups on Wednesday called for governments from various countries around the world to take action as hunger spreads across the Gaza Strip, Palestine, including demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire as well as lifting all restrictions on the flow of humanitarian aid.

In a statement signed by 111 organizations, including the Mercy Corps, Norwegian Refugee Council and Refugees International, the groups warned of mass hunger spreading in the Palestinian enclave, when tons of food, clean water, medical supplies, and other items were abandoned outside Gaza because humanitarian organizations were blocked from accessing or sending them.

"Along the Israeli government's siege of hunger for the Gaza people, aid workers are now joining the same food line, risking being shot just to feed their families. With the supplies now completely exhausted, humanitarian organizations watching their own colleagues and partners waste in vain in front of their eyes," the organizations said. , reported Reuters July 23.

Restrictions, delays and fragmentation of the Israeli government under its total siege have created chaos, hunger and death, they said.

The organizations call for the government to demand the lifting of all bureaucratic and administrative restrictions, the opening of all land crossings, guarantees of access to all people in Gaza, the rejection of military-controlled distributions, and the restoration of "the principled and led humanitarian response of the United Nations."

Countries must take concrete steps to end the siege, such as stopping the transfer of weapons and ammunition, they said.

Israel, which controls all supplies entering Gaza, denies responsibility for food shortages.

Senior Israeli security officials said on Tuesday the country's military had not identified hunger in the Gaza Strip, amid criticism of unprecedented hunger in Palestine, but stressed the need for action to "stabilize the humanitarian situation," quoted by The Times of Israel.

The official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, acknowledged recently there had been a significant decline in the amount of aid reaching Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, but blamed the United Nations agencies for not collecting and distributing food and supplies.

More than 800 people have died in recent weeks while trying to get food, mostly as a result of mass shootings by Israeli soldiers stationed near the distribution center of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

The foundation, which is backed by the United States, has been heavily criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for alleged lack of neutrality.

Food stocks in Gaza have run out since Israel cut off all supplies to the region in March, before lifting the blockade in May with new measures it says are needed to prevent aid from being diverted to militant groups.