Statement of the ILPS Committee for Africa and West Asia on the Situation in Gaza

Statement of the ILPS Committee for Africa and West Asia on the Situation in Gaza

February 27^th, 2024

The Palestinian people of Gaza continue to suffer immensely after over 139 days of Zionist aggression. Their homes, hospitals, mosques and cultural institutions have been bombed. Their cities, villages, farms, desalination water treatment facilities and most of the infrastructure razed to the ground. Many Gazans have been arrested, tortured, imprisoned and shot in cold blood. Their lives hostaged by the Israeli government that is obsessed with ethnic cleansing and driving the Palestinians out of their homeland just like they did in the Nakba of 1948.

The Western imperialist powers, led by the US, are complicit in this genocide. They provide the Israeli armed forces and paramilitary groups with military personnel, political support and the weapons used in destroying infrastructure in Gaza Strip and in killing about 37,000 civilians, half of which are children, and the wounding of 70,000 more.  

The Zionists unloaded more than 65,000 tons of explosives, the equivalent of over three atomic bombs like the one dropped by the Americans in Hiroshima, on Gaza and is continuing to use food and water as a weapon in coordination with the imperialists. 

The Israeli government has laid siege on Gaza for the past 17 years. It restricted the mobility of Gazans and controlled all supplies including food and water in the Strip. 

Since October, the occupation forces further curtailed the entry of food and water into the Strip, while the imperialist controlled “humanitarian” organizations like the World Food Programme have ceased to deliver aid to Gaza. As a result, 576,000 people in Gaza are experiencing serious famine while the rest of the 2.2 million population is in a state of food crisis. Ninety percent of children under two years of age and ninety-five percent of pregnant and lactating mothers are experiencing extreme hunger. In addition, the residents are experiencing severe water shortage. Some families receive less than one liter of saline or contaminated water per person to drink per day. The food situation will likely lead to starvation and more deaths.

In the third phase of its aggression, the Israeli armed forces are forcing 85% of Gaza’s 2.2 million population, more than one and half million people, into Rafah which is a small city in the southern Gaza Strip that used to house a population of 171,000 in 2017. They are being threatened by the Zionists with a ground attack which will surely be catastrophic and turn into a massacre. The situation caused by the Zionist aggression is dire and may explode any time. 

We in the ILPS with all peace-loving peoples of the world call for an immediate ceasefire, withdrawal of all occupation troops, supply of humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza. Israel should be held accountable for all lives lost and destruction incurred as per international law.

We say enough!

Stop the genocide! 

Withdraw all occupation forces!

Lift the siege on Gaza!