A-Infos (en) Italy, FDCA, Cantiere #25 - Gaza: preventing catastrophe (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

We are in Al Arish, right in the Egyptian Sinai, at the Red Crescent 
hub. The basic necessities rejected by Israeli controls are crammed 
here, still packaged. Oxygen cylinders, generators, hygiene soaps, 
incubators, medicine coolers, crutches, even chocolate biscuits: all 
considered a "threat" to Israel's national security. The signs are those 
of the main international NGOs and donor governments.
We are here with the solidarity caravan organized by AOI (the 
Association of Italian NGOs), Assopace Palestina and ARCI. A caravan of 
around fifty people made up of civil society, journalists and 14 
parliamentarians. All 14 are opposition deputies: the appeal to those in 
the majority to participate fell on deaf ears.
Approaching Rafah means making your way through columns of humanitarian 
aid trucks that have been blocked for weeks. When we get off, the 
drivers surround us in desperation. They are stranded under the desert 
sun without bathrooms or assistance. They carry tents, bags of flour, 
canned food, rice, blankets, cases of water. Everything boils in the 
heat but they don't receive the order to move. In the collective 
retaliation unleashed by Israel since October 7 against the entire 
population of Gaza, there are the bombs that are incinerating the Strip 
but also the hunger and thirst to which the Netanyahu government has 
decided to condemn civilians.
At the Rafah crossing, under the sun and a blanket of heat, Scott 
Anderson, Urnwa director of Gaza, meets us. He comes from hell and tries 
to describe it to us. Dozens of children have now died from malnutrition 
and dehydration. You drink sewer water or salty sea water. 
Gastrointestinal diseases are increasing tenfold and particularly affect 
girls and boys. As summer approaches, there is a fear of a human 
massacre from cholera. Water for human consumption is a mirage, let's 
think about washing water. All the health workers tell us that the 
children continue to scratch, they haven't had a shower for months. 
Nothing obviously compared to the total absence of anesthetics (these 
systematically blocked by the Israelis because they are considered "dual 
use"). In 12 out of 52 hospitals that survived the systematic 
destruction of the bombings, operations are performed on the ground and 
limbs are amputated without anesthesia.
Here in Rafah, at the gates of hell, the temperature range is strong and 
the suffocating heat of the day is replaced by the biting cold of the 
night. People are under makeshift shelters, packed together like 
sardines. Before 7 October, Rafah had 280 thousand inhabitants, now, in 
an increasingly compressed strip of land, it "hosts" 1 million and 400 
thousand human beings. There is one chemical toilet for every 600 people 
(WHO standards would require one for every twenty), the few trucks that 
pass risk being attacked by hungry people. Now we eat every three days 
and we are also consuming animal food.
UNRWA is in the sights of the Israelis: it is the backbone of the 
survival of the Palestinians not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank 
and in the refugee camps in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. Tel Aviv's 
accusation: a dozen employees out of over 13 thousand who, in various 
capacities, participated in the actions of 7 October. No trace of 
evidence. UNRWA fired them and opened an investigation. It's not enough 
for Israel. The declared objective is to eradicate it from all occupied 
territories. Let the Palestinians make do, die of hunger and remain 
without education, so at least they will understand that they must go 
away, leave their land "to the people of the elect". And then that word 
"right of return" enshrined in the first UN resolutions after the Nabka 
of 1948 must be canceled in all its forms. If bombs and snipers can't do 
it, let hunger, thirst and disease do it. A true ethnic cleansing 
strategy. As in the genocide of the native peoples of the Americas. The 
usual mixture of white supremacism and colonialism.
The blocking of funding to UNRWA by the USA, Japan, Germany and Italy is 
an unlimited shame. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni reiterated this to the 
Chamber: "Italy will not lift the block on UNRWA funds until it is 
clarified where these funds end up." Now that these funds end up in 
food, medicine and drinking water essential to prevent the humanitarian 
catastrophe in Gaza and that UNRWA is the only UN agency capable of 
distributing them widely, the Italian government also knows this very 
well. NATO countries such as Sweden and Canada, which had also joined 
the blocking of funds, have revoked this objectively irrational and 
shamefully punitive measure towards the Palestinians.

UNRWA is accused of complicity yet to be proven, while on the certain 
evidence of the violation of international humanitarian law (hospitals, 
schools, headquarters of humanitarian agencies incinerated not to 
mention journalists and ambulances which have become habitual targets of 
IDF snipers) and at the same time on the provisions of the International 
Court of Justice regarding the potential violation of the Genocide 
Convention by Israel, Italy has not even made a mild proposal for a 
sanction against Tel Aviv. Two weights and two measures.
We Solidarity Caravan came to Rafah because we cannot look the other 
way. We need to act. The "Gaza Emergency" fundraiser by Aoi and the 
"Water for Gaza" fundraiser by Un Ponte Per are just a drop in a sea of 
desperation, but they are also the sign of the existence of an Italy of 
solidarity. We need to increase the pressure on the Italian government 
and on those of the EU so that they work seriously for the immediate 
ceasefire, sanction Israel, block the arms trade, impose the opening of 
all border crossings so that aid reaches the population immediately. We 
need to act quickly before the irreparable happens.

*Co-president of Un Ponte Per
To support solidarity campaigns:
https://www.unponteper.it/it/acqua-per-gaza/
https://www.ong.it/emergencygaza/

https://alternativalibertaria.fdca.it/
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