Israeli forces have renewed their orders for northern Gaza's 400,000 residents to leave or face the risk of starvation and bombardment.
“The Australian Government must state loud and clear that using starvation as a weapon of war is a war crime and that perpetrators have to be held accountable,” said Save the Children Australia CEO Mat Tinkler.
“As is so often the case in conflict, the people least able to evacuate will be children (particularly those who have been orphaned) the elderly, the sick and injured and people with disabilities. If aid is cut off, the denial of food, water and medicine to these people will effectively be signing their death warrants.”
The U.N. World Food Program has said no food aid has entered northern Gaza since 1 October 2024.
The effect of malnutrition on a child is catastrophic. Once severe acute malnutrition takes hold, children often develop other conditions. The immune system of a severely malnourished child begins to shut down, making otherwise non-life-threatening conditions like diarrhoea, potentially lethal. The reality is children are already dying because of malnutrition and disease, deaths which are entirely preventable.
At Al-Aqsa Hospital in the so-called “humanitarian zone” in the south of Gaza, patients and families sheltering in tents were on Monday engulfed by a massive fire triggered by an Israeli airstrike with reports of deaths and multiple causalities. Civilians in the north were directed to the “humanitarian zone” under orders issued by Israeli forces on 7, 9 and 12 October.
At least 300 people have reportedly been killed in Gaza in nine days of bombardment, bringing the death toll in the enclave to 42,289, with a further 98,336 injured.
“For over a year now, we have watched on as all norms of international humanitarian law have been broken, escalating this war from one horror to another, and shattering the lives of millions of children in the process. It is terrifying how often we have thought this war could not get any worse and then it does, time and time again. I now fear we’re about to see the brutality taken to a whole new level that could cost tens of thousands more children their lives,” said Mr Tinkler.
“We welcome the Australian Government’s continued calls for a ceasefire but as this war now appears, unimaginably, to be entering an even deadlier phase, Australia must do whatever it can to bring this violence and bloodshed to an end and restore hope and health to millions of children.”
Middle East Regional Director for Save the Children Jeremy Stoner said:
“In the north, an already starving population has been cut off from food for two weeks while trying to dodge bombs and bullets in a kill zone they cannot leave. In the south – the area to which families in the north were directed for their safety – bombs dropped by Israeli jets have set off a fire that is searing through Al-Aqsa Hospital and tents in the hospital grounds, with reports of rescuers finding burned and charred bodies. ‘Evacuation orders’ are at risk of becoming ‘execution orders’ as children are denied the means to survive,” he said.
“What military goals could justify such mass-scale slaughter of civilians? The notion of collateral damage must never be used to excuse the predictable killing of children. A year ago, there was international outcry when an Israeli rocket damaged Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, injuring four staff members. How devastatingly far we have descended.”
“Gaza is what can happen without the rules of war. Except there are rules – for parties to the conflict, and for the international community – which are not being respected. The only impactful action taken by some member states is to send the weapons being used to kill children and burn patients and families in hospitals and tents. Humanity has lost its way if those with the ability – and legal obligation – to stop this slaughter choose not to.”
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MEDIA CONTACT: Joshua McDonald on 0478 010 972 or media.team@savethechildren.org.au.