Photo credit: UNRWA
NIFC project partner The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, as well as other NIF-funded grantees Adalah, Gisha, and HaMoked, joined forces with Physicians for Human Rights – Israel in calling on the Israeli government to immediately allow the entry of fuel into the Gaza Strip at a scale necessary to sustain life.
The organizations directed their appeal last week to Israel’s leadership including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Minister of Defense Yisrael Katz, and COGAT, the Israeli military body that implements the government’s policy for civilian life in occupied territory.
Since March, the Israeli military has allowed very little food, medicine, and fuel into Gaza. Recently, a trickle of aid was allowed in, but the amount of fuel entering the strip is profoundly insufficient for the needs of the population. Without fuel, Gazans cannot access basic necessities: clean water, medical care, or electricity. They cannot power life-saving and disease-preventing equipment for the most basic of services—ambulances cannot run, and sewage cannot be treated.
These organizations also called for access to and safe distribution of existing fuel reserves inside the Strip and stated that denying fuel access constituted collective punishment and may amount to a war crime and a crime against humanity.
NIFC is also not waiting for the government to act. Last month, we raised $37,000 in urgent funds for food aid and clean water in Gaza.
This week, NIF in the UK held a webinar with one of its newest partners, Clean Shelter, who told us about the incredible work they have been doing over the last few months. Clean Shelter’s teams on the ground in Gaza build toilets and rehabilitate desalination and water distribution infrastructure. Instead of needing to find fuel to go get water, Clean Shelter brings clean water directly to Gazans who need it. Clean Shelter’s co-directors, a Palestinian from Gaza named Seba Abu Daqa and a Jewish Israeli named Tom Kellner, joined the webinar this past week to discuss their essential work. Watch it below.