More than 20 major aid organizations urged governments to act after a UN Commission concluded Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
Over 20 of the world’s largest humanitarian organizations have called on governments to urgently intervene in Gaza after a United Nations Commission of Inquiry concluded for the first time that Israel is committing genocide.
In a joint statement released on Wednesday, the aid leaders described the situation in Gaza as “an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe” and warned that the Israeli army’s latest orders for the mass displacement of Gaza City – home to nearly one million people – could mark the beginning of an “even deadlier period.”
“Gaza has been deliberately made uninhabitable,” the statement said.
According to official figures released by the Gaza Health Ministry, about 65,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023, including more than 20,000 children. Thousands more remain missing under the rubble of homes destroyed in relentless Israeli bombardments.
Nine out of ten people in Gaza’s 2.1 million population have been displaced, many of them multiple times, and are now crammed into shrinking areas “that cannot sustain human life,” the statement said.
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At least half a million people are starving, with famine already declared and spreading. Entire cities have been razed, hospitals and water treatment plants destroyed, and agricultural land systematically targeted, the aid groups added.
The organizations said they had directly witnessed “horrifying deaths and suffering” during repeated visits to Gaza, including children too traumatized to speak, families forced to eat animal feed, and parents boiling leaves to feed their children.
“Some children have told us they want to die to join their parents in heaven,” the statement read.
Despite repeated warnings, the groups said, “facts are ignored, testimony is cast aside, and more people are killed as a direct consequence.”
The aid leaders urged governments to move beyond rhetoric and “use every available political, economic, and legal tool” to prevent the further destruction of Gaza and end Israel’s occupation.
“If Member States continue to treat these legal obligations as optional, they are not only complicit but are setting a dangerous precedent for the future,” the statement warned.
The appeal was signed by leaders of ActionAid, Oxfam, Médecins Sans Frontières, Save the Children, the Norwegian Refugee Council, CARE International, Islamic Relief, War Child, and others.
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UN Commission Finding
The agencies’ call comes one day after a UN Commission of Inquiry delivered a landmark report to the Human Rights Council, concluding that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and accusing senior Israeli leaders of direct and public incitement.
While past UN bodies have accused Israel of war crimes and crimes against humanity, it is the first time an official UN investigation has gone as far as to determine genocide.
“History will undoubtedly judge this moment as a test of humanity,” the aid agencies warned. “And we are failing. Failing the people of Gaza, failing the hostages, and failing our own collective moral imperative.”
Meanwhile, at a press conference on Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in response to questions on the UN Commission of Inquiry’s determination that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, described the aggression on Gaza as “horrendous” and accused Israel of showing no willingness to engage in serious negotiations for a ceasefire or the release of captives.
He clarified that making such a legal judgment lies with judicial entities, such as the International Court of Justice, and is not the role of the Secretary-General.
“What happens in Gaza today is horrendous,” Guterres said at the news conference.
He described the situation in Gaza as a “systematic destruction: and “massive killing of civilians in a way that I do not remember in any conflict since I am Secretary-General.” He added that “Israel’s impediments to aid distribution and repeated displacement orders are “morally, politically, and legally intolerable.”
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Ceasefire Negotiations Stalled
While expressing hopes for a permanent ceasefire and the release of captives, Guterres said that Israel appears determined to press on with its aggression.
“At the present moment, it looks like Israel is determined to go up to the end and is not open to a serious negotiation for a ceasefire, with the dramatic consequence … that it is also not allowing for the release of hostages,” he said.
Pointing to the recent Israeli attack on Hamas negotiators in Qatar, he said that this is further evidence that Israel is uninterested in meaningful talks.
When asked about the possibility of a United Nations protection force in Gaza, Guterres dismissed the idea, saying that it would not be accepted by either Israel or the US.
The Secretary-General also criticized the divisions within the UN Security Council, calling its paralysis “a source of impunity that undermines our work.”
“It is not the UN, it’s the member states that are divided that do not allow the UN to work properly,” he stressed.
This comes on the heels of the death toll in Gaza having risen from Israeli aggression since October 7, 2023 – as of September 16, 2025, to 64,964, in addition to 165,312 injuries, amidst relentless Israeli bombardment that is sparing nothing.
(PC, AA)
