London, 24th November 2023 – Action Against Hunger welcomes the progress being made to secure the release of Israeli and foreign hostages held in Gaza, and the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. However, we believe a four-day humanitarian pause is wholly insufficient to launch a meaningful humanitarian response on the scale required to meet the needs of the population.
Our teams continue to work tirelessly to deliver humanitarian aid, despite insecurity, poor communications, fuel shortages and dwindling stocks in the local market. We have been working with local suppliers inside Gaza to distribute aid such as water, food, hygiene products, nappies, blankets, and mattresses as efficiently and quickly as possible. And most importantly, making sure it reaches the people who really need it.
The people of Gaza are in critical need of humanitarian aid, and our teams are prepared to scale up the response. However, a sustained ceasefire is essential to achieve this. A ceasefire extension is the only way to protect civilians, critical infrastructure, and to ensure a safe and scaled-up humanitarian response that can meet the needs of the civilian population.
In practice, the following conditions must be in place to enable an appropriate humanitarian response that meets Gaza’s needs:
- A lasting and sustainable cessation of all violence, throughout the Gaza Strip, including in northern Gaza, the West Bank and Israel.
- The unimpeded movement of humanitarian supplies into Gaza, including all supplies critical to the rehabilitation, operations, and maintenance of infrastructure vital to the survival of the population, including water and sanitation.
- Safe, unimpeded, and assured movement of humanitarian personnel within and outside Gaza.
- Unhindered, safe movement and assembly of civilians for access to humanitarian aid and services.
- The evacuation of sick and wounded within or outside the territory, with guarantees of the right of return.
- Safe passage for civilians wishing to flee, within or outside the territory, with guarantees of the right of return.
- Continued progress to secure the release of the hostages in Gaza and their fair treatment while in captivity.
- Reopening of the Erez and Kerem Shalom border crossings for humanitarian supplies.
- Reopening of the third water pipeline supplied by Israel.
- Reconnection of Israeli electricity supply lines to Gaza.
- The entry of sufficient fuel supplies for the entire humanitarian response.
- Agreement by the parties to the conflict on a monitoring and verification mechanism to monitor and report publicly to the Security Council on the implementation of the sustained pauses.