Following the killing of seven aid workers by Israel earlier this week, Human Aid & Advocacy says the UK must finally take concrete action against the Zionist occupation.
On Monday, the world’s eyes were opened to the Israeli occupation’s sinister attack on humanitarian aid after seven aid workers were killed by Israeli airstrikes upon returning from delivering 100 tonnes of food aid in central Gaza.
The World Central Kitchen said their convoy was hit “despite coordinating its movements with the Israeli military,” and said that “the two of the cars hit were clearly marked as aid vehicles.”
So if Israel’s goal of “weaponising aid” and deliberately attempting to starve Gaza wasn’t yet clear, it has now been unequivocally affirmed. And this was not just an isolated incident.
Jamie McGoldrick, the UN’s aid coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, has described Gaza as “one of the most dangerous places on earth for humanitarian workers.”
He said: “As of 20 March, at least 196 humanitarians had been killed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since October 2023. This is nearly three times the death toll recorded in any single conflict in a year.”
The Zionist occupation has a history of killing aid workers. The tragedy of the Mavi Marmara is still vivid in the minds of Human Aid & Advocacy aid workers who were among hundreds of humanitarians from 50 different countries working to deliver a flotilla of 10,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid into the besieged Gaza strip in 2010.
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On that devastating night ten aid workers were killed and hundreds injured by Israeli forces who attacked by land, air and sea, shooting people on sight.
Today the illegal Israeli occupation has created “famine-like conditions,” according to humanitarian group Refugees International. Their research on the ground also found that the occupation “consistently and groundlessly impeded aid operations within Gaza, blocked legitimate relief operations and resisted implementing measures that would genuinely enhance the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.”
Moreover, Gaza’s Health Ministry have confirmed that 27 children and three adults have died so far from malnutrition, and this figure is estimated to increase imminently.
This intimidation of aid workers puts NGOs in a difficult position as to whether to risk their aid workers or pull out of completely, like we saw with WCK who have halted operations in Gaza.
Moreover, the frequent disruptions in trying to deliver emergency aid indicates that Israel is implementing starvation as a tactic of war. The UN’s most senior human rights official, Volker Türk, stated that that there was a “plausible” case that “Israel was using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza.”
Yet despite three British citizens being indiscriminately murdered by the IDF, the UK continues to aid Israel through trade and arms sales. The UK’s unwavering support for the Israeli occupation has enabled a genocide to unfold as well as the deaths of its own citizens.
Human Aid & Advocacy has launched the #NoToGenocide campaign to draw attention to how the occupation is using starvation as a weapon of war, and demand the UK government end its complicity through cutting trade and arms sales to Israel.
A ceasefire and short-term aid is not enough, we must place sanctions and arms embargo.
Take part in the action: No To Genocide | Human Aid & Advocacy
