INTERNATIONAL organisations, including Christian Aid and Caritas, made a joint statement on Wednesday, decrying the restrictions place on aid delivery to Gaza, as Israeli politicians signalled their intention to occupy the territory.
“Israeli authorities have rejected requests from dozens of NGOs to bring in lifesaving goods,” the statement said. It was signed by more than 100 organisations. Among them were also Oxfam, Médecins Sans Frontières, Sabeel-Kairos, Pax Christi, and Embrace the Middle East.
Many organisations that were now being told by Israel that they were not “authorised” to deliver aid had worked in Gaza for decades and were “trusted by communities and experienced in delivering aid safely”, the statement said.
New rules introduced by Israel in March allowed for authorisation to be denied on the basis of “vague and politicised criteria”, and this was designed to “control independent organisations, silence advocacy, and censor humanitarian reporting”, the statement said.
The restrictions were “part of a broader strategy” by Israel, which included the installation of the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) as the primary aid distributor in the territory.
Many of the same organisations have previously criticised the part played by the US-backed GHF. The food-distribution sites that it had set up “look like the Hunger Games”, the Archbishop in Jerusalem, Dr Hosam Naoum, said in July.
At least 859 Palestinians had been killed around GHF sites since it began operating, Wednesday’s statement said.
On Tuesday, a statement signed by the British Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, and his counterparts in 25 other countries criticised the registration requirement and called on Israel to “unblock essential humanitarian actors from operating”.
The statement said that that “humanitarian suffering in Gaza had reached unimaginable levels” and warned that “famine is unfolding before our eyes.” Calling on Israel to allow the unimpeded entry of aid into Gaza, the statement said that such relief “should never be politicised”.
The bombardment of Gaza by Israel continued this week, after the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his government announced plans to take control of the most populous city in the territory.
Last week, the Israeli Security Cabinet voted to take over Gaza City, in a move condemned at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Sunday.
That evening, an Israeli air strike on a media tent near a hospital in Gaza City killed six journalists. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) alleged that one of the journalists, the Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif, was “the head of a terrorist cell”. No such assertions were made about the others killed.
Al Jazeera rebutted the accusation and said that the killing had been “a desperate attempt to silence the voices exposing the impending seizure and occupation of Gaza”. Israel does not allow international media to operate independently in Gaza.
There are reports of dissension within Israel’s coalition government over the policy of full occupation. On Wednesday, the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, criticised the head of the army, Eyal Zamir, for “standing on his hind legs against our plan to occupy Gaza”.
In an interview with Fox News last week, Mr Netanyahu said that his government would fully occupy Gaza to “liberate” Palestinians from Hamas.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza reports that more than 61,000 Palestinians have been killed since the bombardment began in response to the terrorist attacks on 7 October 2023. Research published at the start of this year by the medical journal The Lancet suggests that the ministry’s casualty figures are an underestimate.
Mr Ben-Gvir, who leads one of the ultra-nationalist parties that make up the Israeli government, has been sanctioned by the UK for “repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian communities” in the occupied West Bank.
On the Jewish holiday of Tisha B’av, at the start of this month, Mr Ben-Gvir led prayers at the al-Aqsa mosque compound, in occupied East Jerusalem, violating the longstanding status quo that governs the site, also known as the Temple Mount.
