We, the Foreign Ministers of Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom express serious concerns about the renewed deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Gaza which remains catastrophic. As\u00a0winter draws in,\u00a0civilians in Gaza\u00a0are facing appalling conditions with heavy rainfall and temperatures dropping.\u00a01.3 million people still\u00a0require\u00a0urgent shelter support. More than half of health facilities are only partially functional and face shortages of essential medical equipment and supplies.\u00a0The total collapse of\u00a0sanitation infrastructure\u00a0has left\u00a0740,000 people vulnerable to toxic flooding.<\/p>\n
On 19 December, the IPC published their\u00a0latest report which showed\u00a0that while there has been some improvement since the dire\u00a0reports\u00a0of famine in August, the situation\u00a0remains\u00a0desperate. The majority of the population (1.6 million people) in the Gaza Strip face high levels of acute food insecurity. Whilst\u00a0the\u00a0amount of\u00a0aid going into Gaza has increased since the ceasefire, the response remains severely constrained by persistent impediments\u00a0on humanitarian access.<\/p>\n
We welcome the important progress that has been made to end the bloodshed in Gaza, secure the release of the hostages and turn the page on two terrible years of conflict.\u202fWe also call for the remains of the final deceased hostage to be handed over swiftly, and for Hamas to disarm and renounce violence in line with the New York Declaration and UNSCR 2803 endorsing the Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict.<\/p>\n
However, we will not lose focus on the plight of civilians in Gaza. We are therefore calling on the Government of Israel to take the following urgent and essential steps:<\/p>\n
Firstly,\u00a0ensure that international NGOs are able to operate in Gaza in a sustained and predictable way. As 31 December approaches, many established international NGO partners are at risk of being deregistered because of the Government of Israel\u2019s restrictive new requirements. Deregistration\u00a0could\u00a0result in the\u00a0forced closure of INGO operations within 60\u00a0days in Gaza and the West Bank.\u00a0This would have a severe impact on access to essential services including\u00a0healthcare.\u00a0One in 3 healthcare facilities in Gaza will close if INGOs operations are stopped. INGOs\u00a0are integral to the humanitarian response\u00a0and\u00a0\u2013 working with the UN and Palestinian organisations \u2013 collectively deliver approximately\u00a0$1 billion\u00a0in aid\u00a0across Palestine each\u00a0year. Any attempt to stem their ability to\u00a0operate\u00a0is unacceptable. Without them, it will be impossible to meet\u00a0all urgent\u00a0needs at the scale\u00a0required.<\/p>\n
Secondly,\u00a0ensure the\u00a0UN and its partners\u00a0can continue their\u00a0vital\u00a0work. This is essential to ensure the impartial, neutral, and independent delivery of aid throughout the whole of Gaza. This includes UNRWA, which provides essential services, such as healthcare\u00a0and education, to millions of Palestinian refugees.<\/p>\n
Thirdly,\u00a0lift unreasonable\u00a0restrictions on imports considered to have a dual\u00a0use. This includes urgently needed medical and shelter equipment. The restrictions are holding up essential supplies in every\u202fsector and preventing the rehabilitation and repair of critical infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Finally, open crossings and boost the flows of humanitarian aid into Gaza. We welcome the partial opening of\u00a0the\u00a0Allenby\u00a0crossing,\u00a0but\u00a0other corridors\u00a0for moving goods to Gaza remain closed\u00a0or severely restricted for humanitarian aid. This includes Rafah, which was noted explicitly in the Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict. Bureaucratic customs processes and extensive screenings\u00a0are causing\u00a0delays, while commercial\u00a0cargo\u00a0is being allowed in more freely.\u00a0\u00a0The target of 4,200 trucks per week, including an allocation of 250 UN trucks per day, should be a floor not a ceiling. These\u00a0targets\u00a0should be lifted so we can be sure the vital supplies are getting in\u00a0at the vast scale needed.<\/p>\n
Together, these\u202frestrictions limit the capacity for aid to be delivered at\u202fthe scale needed, in accordance with international humanitarian law, or for repairs to be made to support recovery and reconstruction efforts. We now urge the Government of Israel to remove these humanitarian access constraints, and to deliver and honour the Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict. This is necessary for an effective humanitarian response, successful recovery and reconstruction and lasting peace and stability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We, the Foreign Ministers of Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-343580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}