Gaza Strip: Stilli, unacceptable attack on solidarity and humanitarian organizations

Vatican News

“It is an unacceptable attack on solidarity and humanitarian organizations”: this is how Silvia Stilli, president of Aoi, the association that brings together Italian NGOs, comments to the Sir agency about the murder in Gaza, on Monday, April 1, of seven humanitarian agents who worked for the American NGO World Central Kitchen (Wck), owned by Spanish chef José Andres. The seven, of Australian, Polish, British nationality, with dual citizenship of the USA and Canada and Palestinian, were killed in an airstrike by the Israeli army after delivering food aid to the population who is dying of hunger.

Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu admitted: “This was a tragic case in which our forces unintentionally targeted innocent people in the Gaza Strip.” “We can no longer talk about mistakes. Are they mistakes in targeting people who were going to get food? Or killing seven humanitarian agents?”, asks Stilli. The president of the Italian NGOs saw the dramatic images of the attack that were shared with her by other humanitarian agents: “It wasn’t a bomb that fell or something happened unexpectedly. They were young agents, you can see their helmets off, they were shot under their vests in the belly height”.

“It’s unbelievable, unbelievable, what happened,” she repeats, distraught: “The Israeli army deliberately killed people right after they had delivered humanitarian aid. We call for an international act not only of denunciation and condemnation, but also of severe measures to be taken against the Israeli military. And we express solidarity with the organization and all colleagues.”

Inadmissible targeting humanitarian agents

As is customary for those working in conflict zones, aid workers have made arrangements with the Israeli army to communicate their movements. “It’s a practice that happens everywhere,” explains Stilli.

“Even when we sent two containers that entered through Rafah, with aid and fundraising from Aoi through the Egyptian and Palestinian Red Crescent. Everyone also communicates to the Israelis that they are taking aid.”

“The International Court has made it clear that humanitarian aid must be allowed to enter to be distributed to the population. As if the blockades were not enough, now those who bring the aid are even being targeted, this is very serious. And also because no one is doing This is done in secret, everything is done in the open.”

Total disregard for international and humanitarian law

The president of the association that brings together Italian NGOs reiterates the call to “unblock aid”, also because “everything is about to happen in Rafah. In a short time, in addition to hunger, people will die of typhus, there will be no more water. In Rafah, the civilian population is not protected. Enough is enough.”

“All the rules of international law and humanitarian law have fallen,” she admits, “and we honestly don’t understand what is happening to world governments. They express their condolences and grief, but that is not enough: they must take action immediately because It is not possible to accept a war without more rules, where everything is permitted.”

“We have been waiting for weeks for the final escalation, with almost 2 million people in Rafah in a predicted death condition,” she says. “This is what we fear, along with total insecurity for those distributing aid. What are the programs we have in place being stopped in the name of? We are somewhere between desperate and horrified. And we don’t understand what is happening. What will be the future of humanitarian actors, what will be the safeguards? It’s a really dramatic question mark.”

(with Sir)