According to several NGOs, including Amnesty, a four-day humanitarian ceasefire is “not enough” to bring needed aid to the Gaza Strip
The possibility of a four-day ceasefire opened up by the hostage release deal reached between Israel and Hamas will not be enough to bring needed humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, several NGOs said on Wednesday, calling for a ceasefire.
“It is inadequate and it is certainly not sufficient in terms of human rights,” said Paul O’Brien, executive director of Amnesty International in the United States, during a video conference also attended by Handicap International. , Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders, Doctors of the World and Save the Children.
In addition to the release and evacuation of the hostages, the ceasefire envisaged in the agreement between Hamas and Israel was intended to allow access to more humanitarian and emergency aid to the Gaza Strip, against the backdrop of the total siege that the Palestinian territory has been under since the beginning of the war the country is cut off from water, electricity and fuel supplies. “In four days we cannot provide food to 2 million people and feed 2 million people,” lamented Danila Zizi, head of Handicap International, believing that this would be “a drop in the ocean.”
These NGOs are calling for the establishment of a “ceasefire” and the opening of entry points into the Gaza Strip other than Rafah on the border with Egypt, in order to be able to reach more areas of the Palestinian territory. With the pause provided for in the agreement, “we will be able to bring medicine and fuel, but we will not use them properly and reach the people who need them,” emphasized Joël Weiler, general director of Médecins du Monde.
The NGOs also reiterated their condemnation of the bombings of hospitals and other health infrastructure and regretted the deaths of several of their members.