“The humanitarian system cannot run on false promises. Humanitarians cannot operate on shifting timelines or wait for political commitments that fail to deliver access.”
More than 100 international aid organizations and human rights groups have sounded the alarm on the catastrophic famine in Gaza where aid workers are now joining starving civilians in the same food lines, risking being shot by Israeli forces just to feed their families.
With supplies now totally depleted, humanitarian organisations “are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes,” the organizations, including Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders, said in a joint statement on Wednesday.
🚨 Oxfam and over 100+ humanitarian organizations, including @save_children, @amnesty, & @CARE, sound the alarm: let aid into #Gaza.
Read our joint statement: https://t.co/ahLX7y6qoo pic.twitter.com/FxsJcXTLCz
— Oxfam International (@Oxfam) July 23, 2025
Not only are Palestinians being starved to death in Gaza due to the Israeli blockade, but over 1,000 “aid seekers” have been shot and killed by Israeli forces at or near aid distribution points set up by the US-backed Israeli aid scheme since the end of May.
“Open all land crossings; restore the full flow of food, clean water, medical supplies, shelter items, and fuel through a principled, UN-led mechanism; end the siege, and agree to a ceasefire now,” the organizations demanded.
They said massacres at food distribution sites “are occurring near-daily.”
Over 1,000 ‘Aid Seekers’ Killed
As of July 13, the UN confirmed 875 Palestinians were killed while seeking food, 201 on aid routes and the rest at distribution points, the organizations noted, adding that thousands more have been injured. On Wednesday, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said the death toll was 1,060 with more than 7,207 injuries.
Famine Emergency in Gaza: 21 Children Die in 72 Hours as Starvation Worsens
Meanwhile, Israeli forces have “forcibly displaced nearly two million exhausted” Palestinians with the most recent mass displacement order issued on July 20, confining Palestinians to less than 12 percent of Gaza, they stressed.
“The starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is a war crime,” the organizations stated, citing the World Food Programme as having warned that current conditions make operations “untenable.”
Doctors report record rates of acute malnutrition, especially among children and older people, the statement noted.
It added that illnesses like acute watery diarrhoea are spreading, markets are empty, waste is piling up, and “adults are collapsing on the streets from hunger and dehydration.”
Preventable Illnesses
Distributions in Gaza average just 28 trucks a day, “far from enough for over two million people, many of whom have gone weeks without assistance.”
The organizations said the EU and Israel’s announcement on July 10 of steps to scale up aid, “ring hollow when there is no real change on the ground.”
Israel is continuing to use starvation as a method of warfare, a war crime, and as a tool to commit genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip.
The harrowing suffering of starving Palestinians in Gaza, including our own colleagues, on an hourly basis, is… pic.twitter.com/AfUlgb8jc6
— Amnesty International (@amnesty) July 22, 2025
“Every day without a sustained flow means more people dying of preventable illnesses. Children starve while waiting for promises that never arrive,” they emphasized.
Palestinians, the organizations stated, are trapped in a cycle of hope and heartbreak, waiting for assistance and ceasefires, only to wake up to worsening conditions. This “is not just physical torment, but psychological.”
Call for Decisive Action
“The humanitarian system cannot run on false promises. Humanitarians cannot operate on shifting timelines or wait for political commitments that fail to deliver access,” the organizations stressed.
They pointed out that governments “must stop waiting for permission to act. We cannot continue to hope that current arrangements will work.”
“It is time to take decisive action: demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire; lift all bureaucratic and administrative restrictions; open all land crossings; ensure access to everyone in all of Gaza; reject military-controlled distribution models; restore a principled, UN-led humanitarian response and continue to fund principled and impartial humanitarian organisations,” the statement demanded.
States “must pursue concrete measures to end the siege, such as halting the transfer of weapons and ammunition,” they stressed, adding “States can and must save lives before there are none left to save.”
Read the full statement here.
Ceasefire Call from 25 States
On Tuesday, 25 countries, including 17 from the European Union and 8 from outside the bloc, called for the protection of Palestinian civilians and the urgent restoration of humanitarian access.
In a joint statement, they also demanded an “immediate, unconditional, and permanent” ceasefire in Gaza.
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The signatories include Italy, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden from the EU, along with Australia, Canada, Iceland, Norway, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Japan.
They were joined by Hadja Lahbib, the European Commissioner for Crisis Management.
The latest death toll announced by Gaza’s Health Ministry on Wednesday was 59,219 killed and 143,045 injured since Israel’s genocidal assault on the enclave began in October 2023.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
PM Carney, blood on your hands!