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By ZYAAN DAVIDS
Over the past 19 months, Israel’s assault on Palestinian existence in Gaza has turned the region into the most difficult and dangerous place in the world to deliver humanitarian aid.
Despite the enormous challenges, Islamic Relief’s team and partners in Gaza have worked tirelessly to provide aid to over 600 000 people.
Together we have distributed more than 70 million hot meals, as well as food parcels, nutritional supplements, water supplies, hygiene kits, medical aid, latrines, and education and psychosocial support for children – all while our staff are themselves displaced, grieving and struggling to support their own families.
Our team in Gaza continues to do everything we can to keep going, but Israel’s cruel and illegal siege is crippling the entire humanitarian response. For over 10 weeks, since March 2, Israel has completely shut all crossings into Gaza and blocked all new humanitarian and commercial supplies from entering. Israel is using starvation and denial of aid as weapons in a systematic campaign to make Gaza unlivable.
No food, medicine or fuel have been allowed in. Not even tents for displaced families, painkillers for wounded patients, or incubators for newborn babies. Young children are now dying from hunger and disease.
Like all agencies in Gaza, the Israeli siege has forced Islamic Relief to reduce its operations. We are no longer able to distribute food or nutritional supplements as our supplies have finally run out. Key partners like the UN World Food Programme have also run out. But we continue other lifesaving activities every day. We are cleaning dozens of shelters for displaced families, to prevent deadly diseases spreading, and we continue to provide maternal care to hundreds of pregnant women who must give birth under bombing and siege. We are also supporting more than 20 000 orphaned children and their guardians with cash payments to help them survive.
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Thanks to our generous supporters around the world, humanitarian aid continues to save lives. But it is nowhere near enough to meet the enormous needs that are spiralling every day. Many people are going without aid and half a million people face imminent starvation as famine spreads across Gaza.
The catastrophic suffering is entirely preventable. Aid trucks can deliver food, medicine and other supplies as soon as Israel reopens the crossings. Islamic Relief is ready to resume food distributions the moment that aid is allowed in.
We urgently need international governments to increase pressure on Israel to adhere to international law, end the siege, and allow full humanitarian access to everyone in need. As starvation spreads and more people die every day, history will judge harshly anyone that does not act immediately.
Issued by Islamic Relief South Africa
About Islamic Relief
Islamic Relief was founded as a non-governmental organisation in the United Kingdom in 1984, with the South African office registered in 2004.
The organisation works with communities to strengthen their resilience to calamities, provides vital emergency aid when disasters occur, improves access to basic services such as education, water and sanitation, and healthcare, and facilitates sustainable routes out of poverty. The organisation’s integrated approach to progress is transforming communities worldwide, by tackling the root causes of poverty and ensuring that the world’s most vulnerable people have real influence on both its programmes and advocacy work. For more information visit www.islamic-relief.org.za
