GAZA, (PIC)
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has condemned in the strongest terms Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, which deprives the population of basic services and vital supplies, including access to water, by cutting off the electricity supply on March 9.
MSF said the Israeli authorities have made humanitarian needs a bargaining chip, such as cutting off the electricity supply to the Gaza Strip and preventing the entry of all aid.
It demanded an immediate end to this policy, which amounts to collective punishment, calling on the Israeli authorities to respect international humanitarian law, abide by their responsibilities as an occupying power, and end the inhumane blockade of the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s allies have deliberately ignored and condoned this gross violation of international humanitarian law, calling on the United States to refrain from condoning these actions and act decisively to prevent Gaza from plunging into further destruction.
“Once again the Israeli authorities are routinely using aid as a negotiating tool,” said Miriam Aroussi, MSF’s emergency coordinator.
“This is outrageous, humanitarian aid should never be used as a bargaining chip in a war. The ban on all supplies inevitably harms hundreds of thousands of people and has fatal consequences,” she added.
“The ceasefire was supposed to translate into an increase in humanitarian response, but the Israeli authorities have blocked all aid,” she said.
The last supplies MSF was able to bring into Gaza were three trucks of mostly medical supplies on February 27, and several trucks were scheduled to enter Gaza before the blockade.
MSF is trying to scale up the response in Gaza, especially in the north where people have been deprived of basic needs for months.
“Gaza is now left with no fuel coming in. Our hands are tied, and in the absence of a supply line, it will become increasingly difficult to provide aid to the people of Gaza once our stocks run out. A ceasefire without an increase in humanitarian aid is not a ceasefire,” MSF said.
Meanwhile, the Israeli government’s suspension of electricity supplies to the Gaza Strip has forced the main desalination plant in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, to run on fuel.
The plant has reduced its output from 17 million liters to 2.5 million liters per day. Consequently, the decision to cut electricity will severely and gradually affect the public water supply.
The Israeli blockade that began on October 9, 2023 left hundreds of thousands of Gazans without electricity, food or fuel, causing a humanitarian catastrophe.
After 15 months of bombing, displacement, and disease outbreaks, relief efforts have been constrained by mandatory pre-approval requirements imposed by the Israeli authorities, otherwise so-called dual-use items would be rejected.
“Like all humanitarian organizations, MSF has had to adapt to the conditions imposed by the Israeli authorities as part of a system designed to maintain the blockade of Gaza. Although more trucks entered during the ceasefire period, the goods entry system imposed by the Israeli authorities, which is systematically used to obstruct humanitarian aid, has made it impossible to significantly expand our work, even before this blockade,” MSF concluded.
