Civilian deaths in Gaza are a stain on Israel and its allies, today said Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

‘The pulverizing of Gaza now ranks amongst the worst assaults on any civilian population in our time and age. Each day we see more dead children and new depths of suffering for innocent people enduring this hell,’ he said in a statement.

‘Across the Gaza Strip, almost the entire population – 1.9 million people – have been displaced. Nearly two in three homes are now damaged or destroyed. Amid relentless air, land and sea attacks, thousands of families are forced to relocate from one perilous zone to another. Today, more than 750,000 people are crowded into just 133 shelters. Tens of thousands live on the streets of southern Gaza, where, under bombardment, they are forced to improvise basic shelters from whatever they can get hold of. The winter rains have arrived and so have infectious diseases, just as public health services have been utterly paralyzed,’ added Ege
land.

‘Many of my own NRC staff members now live on the streets. One of them does so with her two-month-old baby.’

The NRC Secretary General said, ‘Our colleagues in Gaza ask themselves a simple question: how is it that these atrocities are beamed across the world for all to witness, and yet so little is done to stop them?’

He added, ‘Countries supporting Israel with arms must understand that these civilian deaths will be a permanent stain on their reputation. They must demand an immediate ceasefire in Israel and Gaza. Only a cessation of hostilities will allow us to ensure effective relief to the two million who now require it. Severe restrictions on aid access have aggravated the situation, leading to starvation among Gaza’s population, intensifying an already dire humanitarian crisis. We have been forced to halt nearly all of our aid operations due to the bombardment, the chaos, and the panic.’

Egeland said that the killing of thousands of innocent children and women, the siege on an entire civilian po
pulation, and the trapping of bombarded civilians behind closed borders in Gaza are also crimes under international law, calling for accountability for this, ‘from political and military leaders as well as those who provided arms and support. This military campaign can in no way be described as ‘self-defense’. The situation in Gaza is a total failure of our shared humanity. The killing must stop.’

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA