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As Israel and the US attacked Iran, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip began to panic. They rushed to the market to buy whatever they could, remembering how crossings had been closed in the past and causing famine. As a result, the prices of food and daily necessities have skyrocketed. Soon, news came that the border crossing had been closed.
All of this happened just as the grace period that Israel had set for 37 NGOs to leave Gaza for not meeting registration requirements ended. Organizations such as Médecins Sans Frontières (also known by its French acronym MSF), Palestinian Medical Aid UK, Handicap International: Humanity and Inclusion, ActionAid and CARE were to cease their operations in Gaza.
At the last moment, an Israeli Supreme Court ruling allowed them to continue working while their appeal against the ban was considered. But even with this court’s ruling, these organizations cannot continue to function fully. The Israeli occupation continues to prevent supplies and foreign staff from entering Gaza.
Together, these NGOs are responsible for half of the food distribution in the Strip and 60 percent of the services provided in field hospitals.
For many families in Gaza, this means starvation. Because food parcels will no longer be distributed and livelihoods will be lost.
We know that this does not mean that NGOs do not meet the new registration rules, just as the closure of border crossings is not a security issue. They seek to impose yet another form of collective punishment on Palestinians.
Even if the Supreme Court were to miraculously rule against the ban on NGOs, the Israeli occupation forces would still find other ways to drive these foreign organizations out of Gaza. This became clear this month when it was revealed that World Central Kitchen, which operates dozens of soup kitchens across the Strip and is not on the banned list, may be shut down.
According to the Gaza government media office, this is because Israel has blocked most of the Gaza organization’s supply trucks from entering. As a result, there is not enough supplies to continue cooking. World Central Kitchen previously announced that it serves 1 million meals every day.
So now, in the midst of a war with Iran that could last weeks or months, hundreds of thousands of families will once again not have enough to eat.
All this comes in addition to Israel’s continued war against UNRWA. Since its establishment in late 1949, the United Nations agency has been the center of international support for Palestinian refugees. It has the greatest emergency response capacity and the widest range of services offered. Nevertheless, Israel has banned businesses and blocked the flow of goods to the Strip.
Through persistent lobbying, Israel succeeded in significantly reducing UNRWA’s budget. As a result, 600 employees were laid off last month. The remaining employees’ salaries were reduced by 20%.
The ban on NGOs will likely result in thousands of people losing their jobs. And this is at a time when unemployment in the Gaza Strip is over 80%.
My family also suffers. Until now, we have benefited from the distribution of food and essential goods from NGOs. My brother was able to find temporary work as a driver in one of them.
The potential closure of international organizations poses a direct threat to the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians who depend on their services and employment. Closing border crossings could mean a new hunger crisis.
These are forms of collective punishment, but again, they don’t make the news. Israel is constantly thinking of new ways to make our life in our devastated homeland more unbearable, more impossible.
Israel’s two and a half years of genocide have destroyed hospitals, schools, universities, roads, sewage and drinking water systems, water treatment plants, power grids, and countless generators and solar panels.
The majority of the population lives a primitive life in tents and makeshift shelters that do not protect people from extreme heat or cold.
Water is polluted, food is scarce, land is destroyed and polluted.
From now on, we will be stripped of the little international support we have received so far.
And what is the purpose of all this? To bring us ever closer to despair and ultimate surrender, to the point where we want to leave our homeland on our own. Ethnic cleansing by mutual consent.
All the organizations Israel is trying to ban are foreign. Most of them are based in Western countries. However, there has been little condemnation from Western governments of Israel’s actions against their institutions. There was no outrage that the occupying forces were trying to destroy international humanitarian aid so that they could fully control the distribution of aid.
Collective punishment is a violation of international law. States have an obligation to go beyond verbal condemnation and take action by imposing sanctions. Until that happens, we in Gaza will continue to be subjected to ever more brutal collective punishment by the occupiers.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of Al Jazeera.
