Major international humanitarian groups have called on world leaders to intensify efforts to end Israel's war on Gaza ahead of next week’s U.N. General Assembly, warning that further inaction would lead to more loss of life.
"States must use every available political, economic, and legal tool at their disposal to intervene," the groups said in a statement Wednesday, released by Save the Children on behalf of over 20 major aid agencies working in Gaza.
"World leaders fail to act. Facts are ignored. Testimony is cast aside. And more people are killed as a direct consequence," the statement added, citing daily Israeli strikes on Gaza City.
The organizations said U.N. member states were treating their obligations under international law as optional, creating a dangerous precedent.
"History will undoubtedly judge this moment as a test of humanity. And we are failing. Failing the people of Gaza, failing the hostages, and failing our own collective moral imperative," the statement read.
Signatories included Doctors Without Borders, Care International, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Oxfam International.
The appeal was published a day after a U.N.-appointed commission of human rights experts concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza because its military campaign there was aimed at the destruction of the Palestinian people.
Israel condemned the report as scandalous, insisting its war targets Hamas, not civilians, and accusing the Palestinian resistance organization of using civilians as human shields.
The aid groups said the international community had ignored facts and eyewitness accounts, leaving civilians to face worsening conditions.
"We have met families who eat animal food to survive and boil leaves as a meal for their children," the groups said, adding that countless Palestinians had lost lives and limbs in Israeli bombardments.
