Lift the Blockade on Gaza: Stop the Genocide
-Amnesty's fieldworker in Gaza
Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while trying desperately to reach food to feed their families.
Two months on from the launch of the Israeli government-controlled scheme, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, massacres at food distribution sites are happening almost every day. According to the United Nations, over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food, including on aid routes and at distribution points. Thousands more have been injured.
The blockade of Gaza must end. UN-led humanitarian aid must be immediately restored.
For nearly 18 years, Israel has maintained an illegal blockade of the occupied Gaza Strip. Since October 2023, it has tightened the blockade, restricting food, fuel, and medical supplies, deepening a humanitarian crisis as part of a calculated plan to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza.
Through its suffocating blockade, Israel has consistently and deliberately restricted the entry of food, medicine and other humanitarian aid to the occupied Gaza Strip. Israel's blockade is a key means through which it is inflicting genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and amounts to a form of collective punishment.
These acts are illegal, inhumane, cruel and deadly. The International Court of Justice ordered Israel to allow unimpeded flow of aid in January 2024 to protect Palestinians in Gaza from genocide. Also, as the occupying power, Israel is obligated to ensure the survival and welfare of Gaza's civilian population, not to strangle it.
This man-made catastrophe is enabled by the longstanding impunity the international community has been granting Israel for decades. The blockade on Gaza is not about security, it is genocidal. Take action today, and send a message to the government of Canada and to the United Nations to stop the genocide immediately!
To: The international community
As the occupying power Israel has an international obligation to ensure civilians in Gaza have sufficient and safe access to food, medicine, and other supplies indispensable to their survival. Instead, and as part of its calculated effort to inflict on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life designed to bring about their physical destruction, it has consistently and deliberately impeded the provision of impartial humanitarian assistance for civilians in desperate need. Its military attacks have also damaged or destroyed vital infrastructure, including sources of food production like agricultural lands, compounding the impact of its starvation policy.
Condemnation is not enough.
We call on you to act collectively and urgently to stop Israel's genocide against Palestinians:
- Demand an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Gaza, ensure full, unimpeded access to all areas of Gaza and firmly reject Israel's military-controlled, non-neutral aid distribution model. A principled, UN-led humanitarian response must be immediately restored, and funding for impartial humanitarian organizations must be maintained and expanded.
- End any trade or transfers that contribute to or are linked to the genocide, apartheid or the unlawful occupation. This includes in the first place banning all weapons and surveillance equipment transfers and any military assistance to Israel. States must end preferential trade agreements and cooperation deals with Israel, including the EU-Israel Trade Agreement.
- Adopt targeted sanctions against those Israeli officials most implicated in international crimes and cooperate with the International Criminal Court, including by implementing its arrest warrants.
- Commit to the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and the rehabilitation of its people while opposing any forced displacement of Palestinians within or outside of Gaza.
- Establish mechanisms for reparations and rehabilitation of Palestinians, with Israel bearing the primary financial responsibility.
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