war crimes

On the deadline for compliance to the US Secretary of Defense letter demanding Israel to provide concrete measures to reverse the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Gaza, today, Tuesday, November 12, Oxfam and seven humanitarian organizations have released a scorecard assessing progress against these measures over the past 30 days, concluding that Israel has failed to comply with its ally’s demands – at enormous human cost for Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

Response to the alert issued last night, by the IPC’s Famine Review Committee, which warned of imminent famine in northern Gaza.

The Israeli forces’ assault on Gaza has escalated to a horrifying level of atrocity. Northern Gaza is being wiped off the map. Under the guise of “evacuation,” Israeli forces have ordered the forced displacement of an estimated 400,000 Palestinians trapped in northern Gaza, including Gaza City. This is not an evacuation—this is forced displacement under gunfire.

A new Oxfam report reveals how Israel has been systematically weaponizing water against Palestinians in Gaza, showing disregard for human life and international law.  

Oxfam is gravely concerned for the lives of around 500,000 Palestinians, alongside any of the more than 200 Israeli and other national hostages, currently trapped in a “siege within a siege” in northern Gaza.  

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. 

Oxfam and other NGOs condemn the attack on the children's hospital in Kyiv.

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. 

In reaction to today’s statement by the International Court of Justice order to South Africa’s court case, which requests Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent and punish the commission of all acts about the articles of the Genocide Convention, Sally Abi-Kahli, Oxfam Regional Director for the Middle East said: “Oxfam welcomes the ICJ’s order and provisional measures as a crucial step towards recognizing the ongoing atrocities in Gaza and stopping the bloodshed and unimaginable horrors that 2.3 million Palestinians have already endured.