Bethlehem / PNN /

The International Committee for Breaking the Siege on Gaza (ICBSG) has received the call – issued by the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO) - for international civil society to exert serious pressure to end the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.

PNGO, which represents 150 Palestinian NGO member organisations across the Occupied Palestinian Territories, issued the call on 1 February 2023 in response to the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip.

As part of the call, PNGO stressed that the United Nation’s Humanitarian Response Plan has stated that nearly 60% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people require urgent humanitarian assistance. 

Citing Israel’s illegal sixteen-year sea, land, and air blockade of Gaza as the primary cause of Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, PNGO highlighted the deteriorating socio-economic conditions in Gaza, rising food insecurity, the lack of freedom of movement, and Israel’s large-scale military wars, as some of the factors contributing to Gaza’s dire and unsustainable reality.

The ICBSG adds that only this week – on 1 February 2023 – 20 European Union representatives arrived in the Gaza Strip for a two-day trip to observe the humanitarian situation. Commenting on the visit, Shady Othman, the spokesman of the European Union Mission in Jerusalem and Ramallah, noted that ‘the humanitarian situation in Gaza is very bad, and the residents need to find a solution to end the Israeli blockade’. Amjad al-Shawa, the head of the Non-Government Organisations Network in Gaza, noted that the Israeli blockade has precipitated ‘a humanitarian catastrophe that affected all aspects of life for the residents of the strip, which is the highest population density in the world’.

ICBSG affirms that we are ready to respond to the appeal from Palestinian civil society organisations, where we look forward to collaborating with members of the PNGO network to activate and coordinate international civil society efforts. At this critical juncture, it is key that organisations
collectivize with the objective of alleviating the suffering in the Gaza Strip through exerting the necessary pressure on the occupying state to break the illegal and immoral blockade on our people.

As a founding member of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the ICBSG will make every effort with our partners in the coalition to activate the efforts to break the sea blockade on Gaza - by both reactivating the blockade-breaking ships that carry activists from around the world, as well as by participating with civil society organizations in the Arab world. The latter will be done with the aim and affirming the right of the Palestinians to a seaport and freedom of movement to and from Gaza.

We will also carry out a number of popular events throughout this year, in addition to political and media activities. These actions will be centred around the demand that international governments fulfil their humanitarian and legal responsibilities to end the illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Palestine Civil Society Call Mobilises Organisations for Gaza

Palestine civil society organisations have been responding to the call by the Palestinian Non- Governmental Organisations Network (PNGO) for international civil society to exert serious pressure to end the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. PNGO, who issued the call on 1 February, represents 150 Palestinian NGO member organisations across the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

In their statement, which noted that Israel’s illegal sixteen-year sea, land, and air blockade of Gaza is the primary cause of Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, PNGO highlighted the deteriorating socio-economic conditions in Gaza, rising food insecurity, the lack of freedom of movement, and Israel’s large-scale military wars, as some of the factors contributing to Gaza’s dire and unsustainable reality.

The organization then called for on the ‘international community at all levels . . . to put pressure on the Israeli occupation state to lift the blockade on the Gaza Strip’. One of the first responders to the call has been the International Committee for Breaking the Siege on Gaza (ICBSG).

In a press release following PNGO’s call, the ICBSG, who are a founding member of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), noted that it ‘will make every effort with our partners in the coalition to activate the efforts to break the sea blockade on Gaza’. 

The organisation signaled its readiness to do this by ‘reactivating the blockade-breaking ships that carry activists from around the world, as well as by participating with civil society organisations in the Arab and Muslim world’. ICBSG also made clear their intention to support the cause through engaging in political and media activities centred around the responsibility of international governments in fulfilling their humanitarian and legal responsibilities to end the illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip.

In commenting on PNGO’s call, Zaher Birawi, Chairman of the ICBSG, said the following: ‘We look forward to working towards this call for collective mobilization. The suffering of our people in Gaza has gone on for far too long while the occupying state’s immoral and illegal blockade and international paralysis has seen the situation deteriorate to levels hitherto seen before’. ‘It is high time that we, organisations in the international NGO support network for Palestinian rights, come together and enhance our coordination in order to maximize our efforts towards alleviating the plight of our people in Gaza’, Birawi added.

Amidst the PNGO call, it is worth noting that only last week – on the day the PNGO call was announced – 20 European Union representatives arrived in the Gaza Strip for a two-day trip to observe the humanitarian situation. During the visit, Shady Othman, the spokesman of the European Union Mission in Jerusalem and Ramallah, noted that ‘the humanitarian situation in Gaza is very bad, and the residents need to find a solution to end the Israeli blockade’. Home to 2.3 million people in the world’s most densely populated area, this year Gaza enters its sixteenth year under illegal air, sea, and land blockade.