occupation

Paper released as West Bank sees escalations in Israeli military and settler violence.

A dramatic rise in Israeli military violence has caused the largest forced displacement in the West Bank since the illegal Israeli occupation began. As the ‘Gazafication’ of the West Bank unfolds, vital humanitarian work and projects are being delayed or destroyed, Oxfam warned today.  

Response to the alert issued last night, by the IPC’s Famine Review Committee, which warned of imminent famine in northern Gaza.

The Lebanese authorities, communities and humanitarian agencies are struggling to shelter and provide the necessities of life to over one million people fleeing Israel’s airstrikes and invasion to the south, Oxfam said today. 

Israel is in the late stages of ethnic cleansing of the North Gaza governorate, Oxfam says. For fifty days, Israel has prevented Oxfam, its partners, and other humanitarian agencies from delivering life-saving aid to thousands of starving people in north Gaza.

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.

In reaction to today’s Israeli raids across West Bank refugee camps, Oxfam MENA Regional Director Sally Abi Khalil said: "The latest Israeli military offensive in the West Bank overnight is deeply concerning, resulting in numerous possible violations of international humanitarian law." 

In response to the UN Security Council’s ceasefire resolution, Oxfam’s Regional Director for the Middle East, Sally Abi Khalil, said: “It is critical that all military forces withdraw. This plan must not lead to permanent occupation or de facto annexation, which would kill any hope for a just and lasting peace." 

In reaction to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report published today on Gaza stating that famine is imminent in Northern Gaza and, Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s Middle East and North Africa Regional Director, said: “This new report shows that the catastrophic levels of hunger and starvation in Gaza are the highest ever recorded. 

 Gaza farmers’ two-month-long “golden time” of agricultural production has been destroyed by Israel’s military bombing and sealing of northern Gaza, ruining the enclave’s richest farmlands which are one of its biggest sources of fruit and vegetables.