ActionAid calls for the immediate opening of a protected humanitarian corridor ensuring access to lifesaving humanitarian aid to Gaza.
ActionAid is standing in solidarity with innocent civilians whose lives have been torn apart due to the escalating violence in Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem and Israel. As the situation unfolds with ever-increasing military responses, we remain deeply concerned about the lives of civilians, particularly women and girls who are living through a nightmare right now. The toll in lives lost and injuries sustained is staggering, with thousands of innocent civilians severely affected.
For years, ActionAid has been working in in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), providing crucial support to Palestinians who have been denied access to basic services and their fundamental human rights and freedoms.
As world leaders intensify their focus on the unfolding tragedy in Gaza and Israel, some making high-profile visits to the region, we urgently call on them to employ all available means to stop the bombing, ensure a ceasefire is in place de-escalate the violence and protect civilians, particularly women and children. The time for action is now.
As some world leaders have committed essential aid to Palestinian people, ActionAid urges them to prioritise the rights and needs of women and girls, including the 5,500 women about to give birth in Gaza who need water, food and electricity to protect their baby’s lives, as well as their own. As of today, women and children represent 70% of the Palestinian population who were killed in the past 10 days.
ActionAid appeals to world leaders to call for the upholding of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), which stands globally to protect civilians' population from any effects of hostilities and indiscriminate violence. IHL needs to be applied to all equally and accountability for adherence needs to be ensured.
Notes to editor
Contact the ActionAid press office on uk.media@actionaid.org or on 07753 973 486.
About ActionAid
ActionAid is a global federation working with more than 41 million people living in more than 71 of the world’s poorest countries. We want to see a just, fair, and sustainable world, in which everybody enjoys the right to a life of dignity, and freedom from poverty and oppression. We work to achieve social justice and gender equality and to eradicate poverty.