Britain and more than 20 other countries called on Wednesday for an immediate end to the war in Gaza and criticized the Israeli government's model for delivering aid after hundreds of Palestinians were killed near a food distribution site.
France, Italy, Japan, Australia, Canada, Denmark and other countries said more than 800 Palestinians were killed while seeking aid and condemned what they called the "drop-by-drop aid delivery and the inhumane killing of civilians."
Most of those killed were near the sites of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which the United States (US) and Israel supported to take over the distribution of aid in Gaza from the United Nations (UN)-led network.
"The Israeli government's model of providing aid is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives the people of Gaza of their human dignity," the countries' foreign ministers said in a joint statement.
The call for an end to the war and the way Israel provides aid comes from several countries that are allies of Israel and its most important supporter, the US.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation uses private American security and logistics companies to deliver supplies to Gaza, largely bypassing the UN-led system, which Israel says has allowed Hamas-led militants to loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the accusations.
The UN has called the GHF model unsafe and a violation of standards of humanitarian impartiality, which the GHF denies.
Beta Agency also reports that the foreign ministers of Great Britain and 24 other countries, including France, Canada and Japan, in a joint statement today called for an "immediate end" to the war in the Palestinian Gaza Strip, which is under Israeli siege, and pointed out that "the suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new heights."
Approximately two million Palestinians under Israeli siege in Gaza are on the brink of famine after more than 21 months of war triggered by an attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7, 2023. The ministers noted that "the aid distribution model established by the Government of Israel is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives the people of Gaza of their human dignity," the signatories said of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The GHF has been operating since late May, after more than two months of a complete humanitarian blockade imposed by Israel on Gaza.
"It is horrifying that more than 800 Palestinians have been killed while trying to get aid," the ministers write.
The UN reported that from the end of May until a week ago, it had recorded 875 people killed trying to get food, including 674 "near GHF sites".
"The refusal of the Government of Israel to provide necessary humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable," the ministers continue.
The signatories also call for the release of hostages who, as they say, are being "cruelly held" by Hamas.
The ministers also indicate that they "firmly oppose any initiative aimed at changing the territory or demographics of the occupied Palestinian territories," calling for an end to settlement activity in those territories.
The signatory countries are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
The declaration was also signed by EU Commissioner for Equality, Haxha Lahbib.
Bonus video:
