ethnic cleansing

A new survey of 35 aid agencies working in Gaza found that Israel failed to improve humanitarian access over the last year.

After more than a year of a brutal military assault and blocking of aid by Israeli authorities, this pause is long overdue.

On the deadline for compliance to the US Secretary of Defense letter demanding Israel to provide concrete measures to reverse the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Gaza, today, Tuesday, November 12, Oxfam and seven 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.

Of the meagre 34 trucks of food and water given permission to enter the North Gaza Governorate over the last 2.5 months, deliberate delays and systematic obstructions by the Israeli military meant that just twelve managed to distribute aid to starving Palestinian civilians. For three of these, once the food and water had been delivered to the school where people were sheltering, it was then cleared and shelled within hours.  

Ahead of foreign affairs ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday, where discussions will include the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the wider region, Agnès Bertrand-Sanz, Oxfam humanitarian expert, said: 

“The discussions happening today behind closed doors have an impact on real people, people who are facing the unimaginable. Yet, Europe’s response is often lethargic – recently exemplified by their lack of response to Israel’s banning of UNRWA.