Center for Human Rights Protection: We are issuing an urgent international briefing to the foreign ministers of the world’s countries, urging them to take immediate political, diplomatic and legal action to stop the worsening humanitarian catastrophe threatening the lives of hundreds of thousands of displaced people in the Gaza Strip as winter begins.

Center for Human Rights Protection:

▪We are issuing an urgent international briefing to the foreign ministers of the world’s countries, urging them to take immediate political, diplomatic and legal action to stop the worsening humanitarian catastrophe threatening the lives of hundreds of thousands of displaced people in the Gaza Strip as winter begins.

▪We warn that the continued ban on the entry of caravans, temporary housing and shelter materials, and leaving residents in worn-out tents and unsafe areas, threatens to turn winter into a new season of mass death in the Strip.

▪The tragedy that took place in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, which claimed the lives of four citizens, including two children, after sand and rock masses collapsed onto their tents, is not an isolated incident or a natural disaster separate from its context, but rather a grave warning that reveals the extent of the threat facing the lives of displaced people who were forced to take shelter in exposed areas and fragile earthen slopes, and near destroyed and collapsing buildings, amid the absence of safe alternatives and the lack of the minimum requirements of humanitarian protection.

▪We affirm that the Israeli occupation authorities bear responsibility for the worsening of these conditions amid the continued ban on the entry of caravans, temporary housing, construction and shelter materials, and the essential supplies needed to provide safe housing for displaced people, leaving hundreds of thousands of Palestinians at the mercy of worn-out tents and temporary housing that do not protect them from the harshness of winter or shield them from the risks of collapse and flooding.

▪We affirm that subjecting basic humanitarian needs to restrictions and political bargaining constitutes a serious violation of the rules of international humanitarian law and turns human suffering into a tool of pressure on the civilian population.

▪The Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 imposes clear obligations on the occupying power toward the civilian population, as Article (55) obliges it to ensure food supplies and medical supplies, and Article (56) obliges it to ensure and maintain health services, while Article (59) affirms the necessity of allowing and facilitating relief operations when the population is not sufficiently supplied.

▪We call on the foreign ministers of the world to act immediately through political, diplomatic and legal pressure tools on the Israeli occupation authorities to allow the entry of caravans, temporary housing and shelter materials, and to establish safe shelter centers that preserve the lives and dignity of displaced people without restrictions or political bargaining.

▪We call for pressure on the occupation authorities to oblige them to open the crossings and ensure the flow of humanitarian aid, relief and shelter materials, heating supplies, and protection from rain and floods, in line with the actual needs of displaced people and in a way that prevents further casualties.

▪We call on the international community to activate international accountability tools, investigate the grave violations related to depriving the population of the necessities of survival and preventing the delivery of humanitarian aid, and prosecute those responsible in accordance with the rules of international law, ensuring that perpetrators of international crimes do not escape punishment.