RAMALLAH, July 23, 2025 (WAFA) – More than 100 international humanitarian organizations have called on governments around the world to immediately open all land crossings into Gaza, restore full access to food, clean water, medical supplies, shelter materials, and fuel, and to support a UN-led humanitarian mechanism, alongside an immediate and lasting ceasefire.
In a joint statement issued Wednesday, humanitarian organizations said that aid workers are now standing in food lines, risking gunfire, just to feed their families, while the Israeli government's blockade continues to starve Gaza's population.
Organizations report witnessing the rapid physical deterioration of colleagues and partners, as aid supplies run critically low.
One humanitarian worker summed up the desperation: "Every morning in Gaza, people ask the same question—will I get to eat today?"
The statement highlights the near-daily massacres at food distribution points. According to UN figures, as of July 13, 875 Palestinians had been killed while searching for food — 201 on aid routes and the rest at distribution centers, with thousands more injured.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces have forcibly displaced nearly 2 million exhausted Palestinians, with the last mass evacuation order issued on July 20, confining the population to less than 12 percent of Gaza's territory.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that the current conditions make humanitarian operations "unsustainable" and reiterated that starvation as a weapon of war constitutes a war crime.
Despite massive stocks of aid sitting undelivered both inside and outside Gaza, organizations say distribution is blocked by Israeli-imposed restrictions, delays, and fragmentation. "These obstacles have created chaos, hunger, and death," the statement says.
One mental health worker described the trauma among children: "Kids are telling their parents they want to go to heaven—because at least there's food there."
Medical professionals are reporting unprecedented rates of acute malnutrition, particularly among children and the elderly, along with outbreaks of diarrhea, piles of uncollected waste, and people collapsing in the streets from starvation and dehydration.
On average, only 28 aid trucks enter Gaza daily — a fraction of what is needed for over 2 million people, many of whom have received no aid for weeks.
The groups firmly reject the claim that the UN-led humanitarian system has failed. "It hasn’t failed — it has been deliberately obstructed," the statement declares. Humanitarian agencies have both the capacity and resources to deliver on a large scale, but access remains systematically denied, even to their own starving and exhausted staff.
The organizations also criticized recent announcements from Israel and the EU on expanding aid access. “These promises of ‘progress’ ring hollow in the absence of real change,” the statement says. “Every day without sustained aid flow means more deaths — from preventable disease, from starvation, from shattered hope.”
The statement emphasized that the people of Gaza are caught in a cycle of hope and despair, waiting for aid or ceasefire announcements only to awaken to even worse conditions. “This isn’t just a physical ordeal — it’s psychological torture,” the groups warned.
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