Embrace joins the call warning of mass starvation in Gaza

Over 100 humanitarian and aid agencies yesterday issued a joint warning that mass starvation is spreading across Gaza and calling on governments worldwide to take urgent action. Embrace the Middle East is a signatory on that statement. The situation now facing our partners, the whole Christian community, and all in Gaza, is beyond critical - it is catastrophic.

An extract of the statement is below. You can read the statement in full, along with the list of signatories, here.

As mass starvation spreads across Gaza, our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away

As the Israeli government’s siege starves the people of Gaza, aid workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families. With supplies now totally depleted, humanitarian organisations are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes…

Governments must stop waiting for permission to act. We cannot continue to hope that current arrangements will work. It is time to take decisive action: demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire; lift all bureaucratic and administrative restrictions; open all land crossings; ensure access to everyone in all of Gaza; reject military-controlled distribution models; restore a principled, UN-led humanitarian response and continue to fund principled and impartial humanitarian organisations. States must pursue concrete measures to end the siege, such as halting the transfer of weapons and ammunition.

Piecemeal arrangements and symbolic gestures, like airdrops or flawed aid deals, serve as a smokescreen for inaction. They cannot replace states’ legal and moral obligations to protect Palestinian civilians and ensure meaningful access at scale. States can and must save lives before there are none left to save….