Coalition of aid groups urged world to act after UN experts find Israel committing genocide in Gaza, as assault on Gaza City intensifies.
Jerusalem: A coalition of leading aid groups Wednesday, September 17, urged the international community to take stronger measures to stop Israel’s offensive on Gaza City after a commission of UN experts found Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.
That’s as Israel pressed forward with the operation in the territory’s already-devastated north and the Palestinian death toll in Gaza neared 65,000.
“What we are witnessing in Gaza is not only an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, but what the UN Commission of Inquiry has now concluded is a genocide,” read the statement from the aid groups. “States must use every available political, economic, and legal tool at their disposal to intervene. Rhetoric and half measures are not enough. This moment demands decisive action.”
The message was signed by leaders of over 20 aid organisations operating in Gaza, including the Norwegian Refugee Council, Anera and Save the Children.
The statement came a day after Israel launched its offensive in Gaza City in earnest, vowing to overwhelm a city already in ruins from nearly two years of war.
On Wednesday, Gaza hospital officials said overnight Israeli strikes across the territory killed at least 13 Palestinians, including women and children.
More than half of the dead were killed in strikes on Gaza City, including a child and his mother who were killed in a strike on their apartment in the Shati refugee camp, according to officials from the Shifa Hospital, which received the casualties.
