Twenty-four countries including Finland and a EU Commissioner on Monday condemned the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food.
Terming the situation as horrifying, the Foreign Ministers of the countries in a joint statement also called on the Israeli government to immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid and to urgently enable the UN and humanitarian NGOs to do their life saving work safely and effectively, said the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs in a press release.
The statement strongly opposed any steps towards territorial or demographic change in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and demanded that the war in Gaza must be ended now.
“The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths. The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity. We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food,” said the Foreign Ministers in the statement.
The statement said, it is horrifying that over 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid, adding that the Israeli Government’s denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable.
Urging Israel to comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law, the statement also called for immediate and unconditional release of hostages taken by Hamas.
“The hostages cruelly held captive by Hamas since 7 October 2023 continue to suffer terribly. We condemn their continued detention and call for their immediate and unconditional release,” said the statement, adding that a negotiated ceasefire offers the best hope of bringing them home and ending the agony of their families.
Urging all the parties to protect civilians and uphold the obligations of international humanitarian law, the Foreign Ministers observed that proposals to remove the Palestinian population into a “humanitarian city” are completely unacceptable and permanent forced displacement is a violation of international humanitarian law.
“We strongly oppose any steps towards territorial or demographic change in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The E1 settlement plan announced by Israel’s Civil Administration, if implemented, would divide a Palestinian state in two, marking a flagrant breach of international law and critically undermine the two-state solution,” said the ministers in the joint statement.
Meanwhile, settlement building across the West Bank including East Jerusalem has accelerated while settler violence against Palestinians has soared, said the statemen, adding that it must stop.
“We urge the parties and the international community to unite in a common effort to bring this terrible conflict to an end, through an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire. Further bloodshed serves no purpose. We reaffirm our complete support to the efforts of the US, Qatar and Egypt to achieve this,” said the statement.
The Foreign Ministers of Finland, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK and the EU Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management were the signatories of the statement.
- Finland
- 24 countries
- Condemn
- Israeli
- Killings
- Gaza
Source: www.dailyfinland.fi
