The latest Israeli atrocities across Gaza must be the final red line for governments to immediately halt all arms sales to Israel, Islamic Relief Worldwide says. In just the past few hours, Israeli attacks have burned children alive in their tents, bombed a polio vaccination site and killed starving mothers as they queue for food. At the same time, families are being starved out of their homes as Israel has cut off all food and other aid to northern Gaza.  

Arms sales are aiding and abetting these atrocities and likely war crimes, and governments must not be complicit in fuelling this horror.  

With global attention shifting away from Gaza, Israel has stepped up attacks on Palestinians across the territory. In central Gaza, this morning children have been burned alive after the Israeli military bombed al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah. Aid workers report screams of agony filling the air and doctors are treating dozens of women and children with severe third-degree burns, but the hospital has no dedicated burn unit. More than 1 million people are now trapped in inhumane and dangerous conditions in the tiny so-called ‘humanitarian zone’ in central Gaza, between Deir al Balah and al Mawasi, and now Israel is forcing even more people there as it aims to empty northern Gaza.

In Jabalia in northern Gaza, Israel is stepping up its stated plans to annex territory and force Palestinians out through relentless bombing and starvation. Dozens of civilians have been killed there in the past few days and Israel has tightened its siege, preventing any new food supplies from entering northern Gaza for the past 2 weeks, since the start of October. This morning bombs struck a food distribution in Jabalia, killing starving mothers, fathers and children as they queued for scraps of food.   

Yet while Israel orders people in the north to move south, many say they have been shot by Israeli snipers as they try to do so. Many families are now trapped between bombs and snipers, with nowhere to escape. Civilians who do not leave northern Gaza do not lose their right to protection and assistance under international law.  

The escalating bombing and forcible transfer of civilians is making it even harder to vaccinate young children against polio, with potentially generational consequences. The second round of the polio vaccination campaign is set to begin today, aiming to give a vital second vaccine dose to almost 600,000 children under 10 years old – but plans are now in jeopardy and at least one school intended to be used as a site for vaccinations has been bombed in the past 24 hours, killing many displaced civilians who were sheltering there.

Gaza is being wiped out before the eyes of the world. Despite Israel’s ongoing ban on international media access into Gaza, and targeted attacks on journalists, governments cannot say they do not know about these atrocities. They must take bolder action and ensure there are consequences for violations of international law. Islamic Relief Worldwide is calling on governments to suspend all arms transfers; unequivocally demand that Israel’s annexation and forcible transfer of Palestinians in northern Gaza must stop; and pressure Israel to comply with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) order to prevent genocide.  

The world’s complete failure to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza over the past year is doing irreparable damage to international law, with terrifying global consequences, Islamic Relief warns as the wider Middle East region stands on the precipice of disaster.

Over the past year we have seen international law violated every day with total impunity. Israel’s indiscriminate and relentless attacks have killed and wounded civilians at a faster rate than anywhere this century. Israel continues to use starvation as a weapon of war, blocking food from reaching starving children. Families are ordered from one area to another like pawns on a chessboard, then bombed in the schools and tents where they are told to shelter. Entire neighbourhoods are now rubble, and schools, hospitals and religious sites have all come under unprecedented attack. More humanitarian workers, medics, teachers and journalists have been killed in Gaza than anywhere else. Warnings of ethnic cleansing, genocide and war crimes continue to be ignored as each day brings new horror and families are squeezed into ever-shrinking areas. Gaza’s entire society is being destroyed.   

International Humanitarian Law (IHL), or ‘the law of war’, was established to protect civilians all over the world from the impact of conflict. If these laws are not upheld consistently and are allowed to be violated so blatantly, there is even less chance of holding warring parties to account and protecting civilians elsewhere. Millions of lives affected by conflicts all over the world are at stake.  

Now as the crisis spreads, Islamic Relief continues to call for an immediate and lasting ceasefire across the region. International governments must use all their leverage to demand an end to attacks on civilians and violations of international law, including by ending all arms sales that fuel the violence. Ultimately Islamic Relief wants to see a lasting peace where all Palestinians and Israelis can live in safety and dignity, and have their same fundamental human rights upheld. We believe that this will not ultimately be possible until there is an end to the Israeli Occupation.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza is virtually unparalleled. An Islamic Relief aid worker in Gaza, whose name is withheld for his safety, says:  

“This has been a year of torture, famine, loss and annihilation. After one year I still don’t see any ceasefire on the horizon and Israel blocks aid with impunity as the world watches. 

“Almost everyone is displaced. My own house is damaged and uninhabitable, my sisters and brothers have lost their homes, and all my colleagues at Islamic Relief have lost theirs.  

“Our Islamic Relief office is gone, as are my children’s schools, the mosque I used to pray at, the hospital where my kids were born, the restaurants I liked, and my Christian neighbours’ church. Israel is systematically destroying our lives.  

“We search everywhere for medicine for my mum’s diabetes but can’t find it anywhere. My friend is suffering so badly from kidney stones that they can hardly move, but there is no treatment. I can’t even find paracetamol and Israel blocks wounded people from leaving Gaza for treatment.” 

Despite the enormous challenges, Islamic Relief staff and local partners have delivered aid almost every single day over the past year. This includes cooking and distributing more than 40 million hot meals for displaced families who have nothing else to eat, providing water to 110,000 people a day, supplying nutritional supplements to 35,000 pregnant women and young children every 2 weeks, and running psychosocial support sessions for over 94,000 children.  

But the scale of the crisis is almost incomprehensible. One in every 16 people in Gaza are now killed or wounded, with more than 41,000 people killed and 96,000 injured. Around 1.9 million people – 90% of the population – are now displaced from their homes, most of them having to move multiple times as nowhere is safe. 60% of homes and 68% of roads are damaged or destroyed, and more than half of hospitals and health facilities have been forced to shut down. 85% of schools have been bombed, hundreds of teachers killed, and 625,000 children have now been out of school for a whole year, with enormous implications for future generations. The relentless crisis is having a devastating psychological toll.  

Almost all civilians are facing severe shortages of food, with young children at immediate risk of starvation and facing long-term impacts of malnutrition such as stunted growth and impaired cognitive development.   

This year-long massacre must not be allowed to continue for a moment longer.