Urgent appeal on the humanitarian situation in Gaza

Eurochild, CRIN and Defence for Children International ask the EU to take urgent steps to ensure immediate humanitarian access, suspend arms sales and introduce sanctions.

Yesterday the United Nations humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher, warned that 14,000 babies could die in Gaza within the next 48 hours because of the Israeli aid blockade. This warning comes after months of brutal war of which Gaza’s children have borne the brunt of violence and which we and numerous organisations and bodies have assessed as amounting to genocide.

Since the start of the current conflict Israel has restricted humanitarian access to Gaza in contravention of international humanitarian law. This has meant that vital supplies including food, water and medicines have not reached vulnerable children. Anything other than instant action will be too late and lead to the deaths of thousands of children.

We urgently call for the EU to ensure the needs of Gaza’s children are heard and that the EU takes action to hold Israel to account for their illegal actions including:

• Publicly denouncing Israel’s actions in restricting humanitarian access in contravention of international humanitarian law and calling for the immediate opening up of genuine humanitarian access;
• Introduce sanctions against Israeli leaders who are implementing this policy;
• Call for the suspension of arms sales to Israel in light of clear and repeated breaches in international humanitarian law;
• Suspend the EU-Israeli Association agreement.

The EU has a pivotal role to play at this critical time. We ask EU leaders to take urgent steps to ensure immediate humanitarian access in accordance with international law.