OTTAWA – The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Anita Anand, says that a “famine takes place before our eyes” in the Gaza Strip, a situation which will be aggravated by the new restrictions imposed by Israel on international humanitarian organizations.
This comment followed a declaration from his ministry on Monday, sentenced the assassination of several journalists by Israel to Gaza.
“Humanitarian suffering in Gaza has reached unimaginable levels,” said Minister on social media on Tuesday. We see the famine before our eyes. You have to act immediately to stop this and reverse the situation. ”
She cited a joint statement written by around twenty foreign ministers in Europe, Asia and Australia. This declaration maintains that humanitarian suffering in the enclave will still be aggravated by the restrictions imposed by Israel on international humanitarian organizations.
Israel denies the widespread allegations according to which famine is raging in the Palestinian territory, in a context of strict controls on the aid entering the territory and the methods of distribution of food.
Last week, a forum of United Nations organizations and partners with the West Bank, in East Jerusalem and in the Gaza Strip claimed the judgment of Israeli policies-which will come into force in September-which, according to them, would force them to “share sensitive personal information on their Palestinian employees under penalty of dismissal”.
The press release indicates that the new restrictions “include potential consequences in the event of public criticism of the policies and practices of the Israeli government”. He specifies that people not registered as part of the new system will be prohibited from sending the Gaza Strip of “Vital Help, in particular drugs, food and hygiene items”.
Remove obstacles
Minister Anand and her peers call Israel to “authorize all convoys of help from international NGOs and to remove the obstacles that prevent essential humanitarian organizations from carrying out their operations” and to use all possible ways to transport food, water and medicines in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has attributed to the UN the failure of the distribution of aid by hundreds of trucks, while the UN says that Israel took too long to inspect trucks and has placed them in areas requiring long and dangerous journeys.
Israel suspended all food deliveries in the Gaza Strip for almost three months this spring, then set up a help distribution system involving American subcontractors. Hundreds of people were shot dead by Israeli troops while they were looking for food as part of the new aid program.
“Humanitarian space must be protected and aid should never be politicized, states the Declaration of Foreign Ministers. However, due to the new restrictive requirements relating to registration, essential international NGOs may be forced to leave the Palestinian territories occupied immediately, which would further aggravate the humanitarian situation. “
The expression “occupied Palestinian territories” is used by the United Nations and European governments to designate the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
A deadly conflict for journalists
The Declaration of Foreign Ministers comes a day after Ottawa had condemned the murder by the Israeli army of the journalist of Al Jazeera Anas Al-Sharif, rejecting the Israeli allegations according to which he directed a cell in Hamas.
“Canada is condemning the assassination of Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza. Journalists are civilians – targeting them is unacceptable, wrote Global Affairs Canada on social networks. We ask that the authors report on their actions and that the media be protected. ”
The Israeli army targeted and killed Mr. Al-Sharif during an air strike on Sunday, after defenders of the press declared that an Israeli “defamation campaign” had intensified when the journalist had cried on the antenna on the subject of famine in the territory.
The army previously declared that it targets individuals which it described as Hamas activists pretending to be journalists. Observers have described war as the deadliest conflict for journalists of the modern era.
Israel prohibits entry into the Gaza Strip to foreign journalists who are not integrated into the Israeli army, and Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has called more foreign journalists to participate in these integrations.
The Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) claims that the media coverage independent of a conflict armed by foreign sources is an unprecedented practice in modern times.
The organization said on Monday that at least 192 journalists have been killed since the start of the Israeli war in the Gaza Strip. She described the deaths of Sunday reprisals against those who document the war in the Gaza Strip.
Irene Khan, a special reporter of the United Nations on the protection of the right to freedom of expression, said on July 31 that these homicides “are part of a deliberate strategy of Israel aimed at stifling the truth, to hinder the documentation of international crimes and to stifle any possibility of future empowerment”.
International Amnesty called for an independent and impartial investigation into the homicides of Palestinian journalists. “Hungry and exhausted, they continued to courageously cover the situation from the front, despite death threats and immense grief,” wrote the group on Monday.
Israel attacks Al Jazeera
In a video of July 24, the Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee attacked Al Jazeera and accused Mr. Al-Sharif of belonging to the armed branch of Hamas. Mr. Al-Sharif and his employer said that these allegations were baseless.
Janina Dill, a world security teacher at Oxford University, told the Associated Press that “even the dissemination of pro-Hamas propaganda” does not constitute a reason for targeted assassination with regard to international humanitarian law.
Al Jazeera is one of the rare media to deploy a large team of reporters in the besieged Gaza Strip, relating daily life in the middle of air strikes, hunger and rubble of destroyed neighborhoods.
Israel prevents Al Jazeera from broadcasting images and soldiers searched the chain offices in the occupied West Bank last year.
In a message on social networks, written by Al Jazeera to be published in the event of death, Mr. Al-Sharif deplored devastation and destruction and said goodbye to his wife, son and daughter.
“I never hesitated for a single day to tell the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification,” wrote the 28 -year -old young man.
During a program broadcast in July, Mr. Al-Sharif was crying on the air while a woman behind him was hungry. “I’m talking about the slow death of these people,” he said at the time.
