Gaza: Latest Updates
Updated: 3/19/2023
On Monday the UN warned that upwards of 70 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are facing catastrophic hunger. This is, according to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, “the highest number of people facing catastrophic hunger ever recorded…anywhere, anytime.” Wide spread famine now imminently looms. The Secretary-General stated that this calamitous situation is an “appalling indictment” of a “manmade disaster”.
Furthermore, UNICEF reports that the number of acutely malnourished children – as young as newborns – has doubled in just the past month. This horrific scenario resulting from the lack of adequate food and nutrients is directly caused by military and combatant decisions and not an unavoidable shortage in resources.
“This is an entirely man-made disaster…and we must act now to prevent the unthinkable, the unacceptable and the unjustifiable.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
To be clear, we believe that political decisions – no matter how they are justified – should never directly lead to the death of innocent children and civilians. Political considerations – no matter how deeply felt – should never preclude the moral imperative of responding to this humanitarian man-made crisis.
The full story can be found here.
02/22/2024
The war in Gaza has now raged for nearly 5 months and the toll on civilians has been horrific. Estimates from international sources place the devastation at:
- More than half of civilian homes and two-thirds of medical facilities destroyed
- Nearly 30,000 deaths, over 20,000 of which are women and children
- Upwards of 70,000 injured
- 85 percent of the population has been displaced
- And more than 2 million people face catastrophic levels of food insecurity and starvation
The statistics – as bleak as they are – do not begin to convey the horror of the situation for the millions of civilians trapped in the territory. With infrastructure destroyed, sanitation decimated, diseases rampant, the conditions for civilians in Gaza is nothing short of “inhumane,” according to the World Health Organization.
Photo by Hosny Salah
Operation USA is a humanitarian aid agency and, like our colleagues, we call for an end to the attacks on medical facilities and civilian targets, to the establishment of a legitimate humanitarian corridor, and for a ceasefire and path towards peace.
The protection and provision of care to civilians is more than just a requirement under the Geneva Conventions – it is a moral imperative.
And as a humanitarian aid agency, Operation USA whole-hearted agrees with and fully supports the recent statement from from the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (the highest level humanitarian coordination forum) regarding the need to allow humanitarian agencies do their job safely. The full post can be found here.
An excerpt follows:
