With no safe place left in Gaza, UN and NGOs demand ceasefire and protection from forced displacement

Statement by the Humanitarian Country Team in the occupied Palestinian territory*

We are witnessing a dangerous escalation in Gaza city, where Israeli forces have stepped up their operations and ordered everyone to move south. This comes two weeks after famine was confirmed in the city and surrounding areas. While Israeli authorities have unilaterally-declared an area in the south as “humanitarian,” it has not taken effective steps to ensure the safety of those forced to move there and neither the size nor scale of services provided is fit to support those already there, let alone new arrivals.

Nearly one million people are now left with no safe or viable options – neither the north nor the south offers safety.

Leaving northern Gaza means paying prohibitive costs for transport and safe passage, sums that most families simply cannot afford. It means navigating roads that are barely passable. It means finding a place to sleep either in the open air or in overcrowded displacement sites. And it means continued struggles to secure food, water, medical care, and shelter, and live without dignified and safe sanitation. Survivors in Gaza are exhausted.

Civilians, including humanitarian personnel, remain present throughout Gaza. They and the civilian infrastructure they depend on, such as health facilities, must never be targeted. Civilian sites must also never be used to shield military operations, but even if they are, this does not in itself render them lawful targets. The looming destruction of Gaza city sounds the gravest of alarms.

Amid ongoing Israeli impediments, the current levels of humanitarian support are wholly insufficient.

Humanitarian access must be expanded and sustained to include direct routes to both the north and the south. Critical supply lines of fuel and water must remain open and uninterrupted. Any further disruption will have devastating consequences for civilians.

To families in Gaza: The humanitarian community will remain in Gaza city for as long as we can and will remain across the Strip, doing all we can to bring aid and deliver lifesaving services.

To the international community: Act. Call for an immediate ceasefire. Uphold international humanitarian law, including the release of hostages and those arbitrarily detained.

This catastrophe is human-made, and responsibility rests with us all.

_{* The Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) is a strategic decision-making forum led by the Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory. It brings together heads of UN entities and over 200 NGOs – both international and local – all working on humanitarian affairs in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip under internationally agreed humanitarian principles.}