Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand and 24 of her counterparts abroad have signed a joint statement saying "the war in Gaza must end now," while calling on Israel to stop displacing Palestinians.
The signatories — who include the foreign ministers of France, Japan and the U.K., and the European Union commissioner for equality, preparedness and crisis management — called Israel's aid distribution system "dangerous."
The ministers also condemned Hamas for continuing to hold hostages captured from Israel in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack and called for their immediate release.
They said it's "horrifying that over 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid."
That death toll is based on figures released by the UN human rights office and the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.
"The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths. The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity. We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food," the ministers wrote.
The ministers decry proposals by Israeli officials to concentrate Palestinians in Gaza into one city.
"Permanent forced displacement is a violation of international humanitarian law," the statement notes.
It also takes aim at the Israeli government's proposed expansion of settlements in the Palestinian territories it occupies, particularly as it seeks to divide the West Bank from East Jerusalem.
This would "critically undermine the two-state solution," the statement said, noting an increase in the building of settlements that Canada deems illegal, at a time when "settler violence against Palestinians has soared."
Oren Marmorstein, spokesman for Israel's foreign affairs ministry, said Israel rejects the joint statement, calling it "disconnected from reality" and saying it "sends the wrong message to Hamas."
"The statement fails to focus the pressure on Hamas and fails to recognize Hamas’s role and responsibility for the situation. Hamas is the sole party responsible for the continuation of the war and the suffering on both sides," Marmorstein wrote in a social media statement.
"At these sensitive moments in the ongoing negotiations, it is better to avoid statements of this kind."
Marmorstein said that Hamas is solely to blame for the lack of movement on a ceasefire and on releasing the hostages. He accused Hamas of "deliberately" increasing tensions and civilian harm at humanitarian aid stations.
The ministers who signed the statement are calling on the Israeli government to lift all restrictions on aid delivery and to "enable the UN and humanitarian NGOs" to do their work safely and effectively.
Most of the food supplies Israel has allowed into Gaza go to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an American contractor backed by Israel. Witnesses and health officials say that since the group’s operations began in late May, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli army fire while trying to reach aid distribution sites.
Israel has blocked aid for three months before setting up GHF sites, effectively shutting down hundreds of sites that had been operated by international agencies across Gaza.
Israel says it had to take this step to prevent aid from reaching Hamas, which had been selling vital supplies and food to pay its fighters. But UN agencies say this was not happening to a large extent.
While the United States, Qatar and Egypt did not sign the letter, the ministers who did sign say they support the efforts of those three countries to negotiate a ceasefire.
In addition to the U.S., Germany was the only other G7 country that did not endorse the statement.
The signatories added they are prepared to take "further action to support an immediate ceasefire" and establish a political pathway to peace in the region.
Picture Courtesy: AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi
