1 month ago
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Friends of the Earth Asia Pacific expresses solidarity with the Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network (PENGON), Palestine and condemns the use of hunger and starvation and deprivation of humanitarian access as a weapon of war, as per UN Security Council Resolution 2417 (2018).
The assault on Gaza has resulted in one of the world’s most severe food crises, with the blocking of food aid entering the country, inaccessible farmlands and fishing grounds, leading to food deprivation for over 2.2 million people. The desperate search for food, especially for vulnerable groups like babies, children, pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, and the elderly, poses a serious risk of malnutrition. An alarming 90% of children under age two in Gaza consume food from only two or fewer nutrition groups, and pregnant and nursing women face compromised nutrition. Without an immediate increase in the amount of relief being permitted into Gaza, the population faces dire risks of malnutrition and lethal famine.
Even prior to the current conflict, an alarming humanitarian situation in Gaza existed as a result of the 17-year blockade by Israeli occupation. Before October 2023, 80% of the population of Gaza were dependent on humanitarian aid, 44% of households were food insecure, and an additional 16% were at risk of food insecurity.
Now, as a result of the destruction of cultivated fields and the shutdown of bakeries, factories, and food warehouses during the war, Gaza’s population now relies entirely on external food supplies.
“It is unprecedented to make an entire civilian population go hungry this completely and quickly. Israel is destroying Gaza’s food system and using food as a weapon against the Palestinian people”, stated Michael Fakhri – UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food on January 23rd 2024, in an interview with Al Jazeera. Human Rights Watch press release of December 2023 called the Israeli government’s move to use starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the Gaza Strip, a war crime. Deliberately preventing the entry of food and cutting off electricity and energy supplies to civilian populations during war can be seen as drivers of forced displacement, violating the occupier’s obligations to ensure the flow of essential items to civilians.
With over a million Palestinians trapped at Gaza’s southernmost point under the Israeli army attack, Friends of the Earth Asia Pacific (FoE APac) expresses deep concern about the increasing risk of famine due to insufficient aid entering Gaza. The quantity of food is only 10 percent of what is needed for the territory’s inhabitants, most of whom are displaced.
Attacks on Rafah, an area civilians were told to evacuate to for safety by the Israeli authorities, resulting in large-scale killing, harm, and environmental destruction, are a serious and irreparable breach of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The war’s contribution to carbon emissions, waste accumulation, air, soil, and water pollution, destruction of cultivated lands, home gardens, and threatening biodiversity and soil quality are clear signs of environmental genocide.
Friends of the Earth Asia Pacific remains steadfast in our call to all governments to compel Israel to commit to an immediate ceasefire and stop attacking civilians in Rafah.
FoE APac also strongly urge that aid agencies are allowed to urgently reach thousands of desperately hungry people across Gaza to avert famine. Food and water should not be used as a weapon of war and we strongly support the statement of the Committee on World Food Security released at the 51st plenary session in November 2023:
The Committee stressed the need to refrain from using food and water as weapons of war in conflict areas, expressed the need for reliable, sustained, sufficient and unhindered access of essential goods and services to civilians throughout the Gaza Strip, and in other conflict areas, including but not limited to water, food, medical supplies, and energy, and stressed the role of FAO, IFAD and WFP, in coordination and collaboration with other United Nations agencies, international financial institutions and relevant bodies, to assess and address, within their respective mandates, the impact of the conflict on food security, nutrition, and agriculture in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly in the Gaza Strip.
Finally, we demand that all governments pressure Israeli authorities to adhere to the recent International Court of Justice ruling on January 26, 2024, by
- ensuring with immediate effect that its military does not commit all acts within Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in relation to the Palestinians in Gaza; in short, genocide;
- taking immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip; and
- taking all measures within its power to prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide in relation to members of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip.
Featuring image credit: PENGON/ FoE Palestine
