Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel

In response to the UN General Assembly’s overwhelming support for a resolution to implement the International Court of Justice’s opinion on the illegality of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territory, Oxfam’s Middle East and North Africa Director Sally Abi Khalil said: “This historic vote has shown that the international community overwhelmingly recognises its obligations in ensuring the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and an immediate end to Israel’s illegal occupation.  

Starvation is being used as a weapon of war against Gaza civilians, Oxfam said today as it renewed its call for food, water, fuel and other essentials to be allowed to enter.  

Shane Stevenson, Oxfam Country Director for the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel said:   

“Finally, for the first of 12 consecutive nights, two million Palestinians in Gaza, including hundreds of thousands of traumatized children, can rest rather than lie awake in fear as bombs fly over their homes.  And civilians across Israel will be spared the threat of rocket attacks.  

With the start of the Israeli Knesset’s summer session on May 4, the undersigning organisations observe with grave concern the series of legislative initiatives and policy measures, currently making their way through the legislative process, that pose existential threats to the survival and mandate of Human Rights Organisations in Israel. 

Ahead of foreign affairs ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday, where discussions will include the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the wider region, Agnès Bertrand-Sanz, Oxfam humanitarian expert, said: 

“The discussions happening today behind closed doors have an impact on real people, people who are facing the unimaginable. Yet, Europe’s response is often lethargic – recently exemplified by their lack of response to Israel’s banning of UNRWA.

In response to the latest Israeli attack on the Al-Mawasi so-called “safe zone”, as described by Israel, Oxfam’s Regional Director for the Middle East, Sally Abi Khalil, said: “Once again, we are witnessing the absolute disregard Israel has for Palestinian lives and for international law. 

The destruction of critical water and sanitation infrastructure by the Israeli forces along with severe over-crowding, malnutrition and heat is pushing Gaza to the brink of a deadly epidemic outbreak, Oxfam warned today. 

In reaction to Israel’s imminent invasion of Rafah, Sally Abi-Khalil, Oxfam’s Middle East and North Africa Regional Director said: “We are horrified by Israel’s order to evacuate around 100,000 people and what appears to be an impending invasion of Rafah, despite a universal plea from world leaders urging it to stop its continued, barbaric, onslaught.  

Israeli authorities have rejected a warehouse full of international aid including oxygen, incubators and Oxfam water and sanitation gear all of which is now stockpiled at Al Arish just 40 km away from the border of 2.3 million desperate Palestinians in Gaza. In a new report today, Oxfam said this rejected aid was just one example of an overall humanitarian response that Israel has made so dangerous and dysfunctional as to be impossible for aid agencies to work at the speed and scale necessary to save lives, despite best efforts. 

 Gaza farmers’ two-month-long “golden time” of agricultural production has been destroyed by Israel’s military bombing and sealing of northern Gaza, ruining the enclave’s richest farmlands which are one of its biggest sources of fruit and vegetables.