NGOs express disappointment at international conference organized by Macron for Gaza

PARIS

Thirteen NGOs held a news conference Thursday in Paris to demand an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip after attending an international conference on humanitarian aid for the Gazan population.

The conference that was organized by President Emmanuel Macron was aimed at mobilizing the main players in the humanitarian response in Gaza and to determine concrete action to support the Palestinian residents.

Despite those aims, the NGOs expressed disappointment because of the lack of any real and effective measures for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, which has been besieged for 17 years.

“Disappointed with the speech at the Elysee as they called for a humanitarian pause only, and the €100 million ($107 million) that the French government promised to help Gaza did not fit the actual challenges to distribute it,” said Jean-François Corty, vice-president of Medecins du Monde, or Doctors of the World.

“We all mourn the death of our team who used to work there. Thirty hospitals are unable to operate, and caregivers are exhausted where no place is secure, from north to south,” he said.

Corty noted the necessity of a cease-fire to provide food, water and medicine. He urged all countries to intervene and denounce crimes being committed against civilians.

The head of Amnesty International, Agnes Callamard, insisted that all political parties should be blamed, not humanitarian organizations.

“We are witnessing a global political crisis and pressure must be put on the United States in the first place,” she said.

Since the Israeli bombing does not differentiate between children, women and men among civilians, injuries and deaths have reached an unprecedented number.

At least 10,569 Palestinians, including 4,324 children and 2,823 women, have been killed.

The Israeli death toll, meanwhile, is nearly 1,600, according to official figures.

“Israel has long rejected UN and international law. Therefore, arming Israel must be stopped,” the Director of North Africa Middle East, Yosra Frawes, told Anadolu.

She criticized international hypocrisy “France, which is organizing this peace conference, is the first European country to provide weapons to Israel,” she said.

“A cease-fire to stop the criminal regime that all Palestinians suffer from for years is important in order to avoid a second Nakba,” she added, referring to the violent displacement of Palestinians in 1948 to make way for an Israeli state.

The Israeli army announced the entry of 760 aid trucks into the Gaza Strip from Oct. 7, carrying 3,000 tons of food, 1,720 tons of medical equipment, 600 tons of equipment for temporary shelters and more than 1 million liters of water.

The per capita share is equivalent to 70 grams of food and 18 millimeters of water per day, in the Gaza Strip which is inhabited by 2.3 million residents, according to those figures.