Jamil Sawalmeh, Country Director for ActionAid Palestine, said:
“These killing zones must cease to exist. The Israeli government has weaponized humanitarian aid, turning it into a tool of oppression, deepening its control over Gaza and continuing the collective punishment and displacement of Palestinians. People in desperate need of food are being forced into death traps at the hands of the US-Israeli militarized distribution scheme, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Israel’s militarized aid distribution scheme violates international standards and humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence. Armed contractors and militarized zones are no substitute for a functioning humanitarian system. People are being starved. They need food, not bullets.
The world cannot continue to stay silent. These atrocities must end. The genocide must end. Israel must be held accountable. States must act now to ensure the safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid, through the United Nations, including UNRWA, and other humanitarian organizations with the experience and capacity to respond.”
ENDS
Jamil Sawalmeh, Country Director of ActionAid Palestine, and Riham Jafari, Advocacy and Communications Coordinator at ActionAid Palestine, are available for interviews. For media requests, please email christal.james@actionaid.org or call 7046659743.
About ActionAid
ActionAid is a global federation working with more than 41 million people living in more than 71 countries, including some of the world’s poorest countries. We want to see a just, fair, and sustainable world in which everybody enjoys the right to a life of dignity and freedom from poverty and oppression. We work to achieve social justice and gender equality and to eradicate poverty, including by shifting power to local organizations and movements.
