More than 250 humanitarian and human rights organisations call to stop arms transfers to Israel, Palestinian armed groups
An open call to all UN Member States to stop fueling the crisis in Gaza and avert further humanitarian catastrophe and loss of civilian life.
We, the undersigned organisations, call on all States to immediately halt the transfer of weapons, parts, and ammunition to Israel and Palestinian armed groups while there is risk they are used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law.
Israel’s bombardment and siege are depriving the civilian population of the basics to survive and rendering Gaza uninhabitable. Today, the civilian population in Gaza faces a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented severity and scale.
Violations of international humanitarian law
Furthermore, Palestinian armed group-led attacks killed around 1,200 people and took hundreds of Israeli and foreign hostages, including children, and continue to hold more than 130 hostages captive inside Gaza. Armed groups in Gaza have continued to indiscriminately fire rockets toward population centres in Israel, disrupting school for children, displacing and threatening the lives and well being of civilians. Hostage-taking and indiscriminate attacks are violations of international humanitarian law and must end immediately.
Humanitarian agencies, human rights groups, United Nations officials, and more than 153 member states have called for an immediate ceasefire. However, Israel continues to use explosive weapons and munitions in densely populated areas with massive
humanitarian consequences for the people of Gaza. World leaders have urged the Israeli government to reduce civilian casualties, yet Israeli military operations in Gaza continue to kill people at unprecedented levels, according to remarks by the UN Secretary-General. Member states have a legal responsibility to use all possible tools to leverage better protection of civilians and adherence to international humanitarian law. Gaza’s remaining lifeline – an internationally-funded humanitarian aid response – has been paralyzed by the intensity of the hostilities, which have included the shooting of aid convoys, recurrent communications blackouts, damaged roads, restrictions on essential supplies, an almost complete ban on commercial supplies, and a bureaucratic process to send aid into Gaza.
Destruction and civilian harm
Israel’s military activity has destroyed a substantial portion of Gaza’s homes, schools, hospitals, water infrastructure, shelters, and refugee camps; the indiscriminate nature of these bombings and a pattern of apparently disproportionate civilian harm they routinely cause is unacceptable. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has warned of the “heightened risk of atrocity crimes” being committed in Gaza and called on all states to prevent such crimes from unfolding. Since this call, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has only deteriorated further:
- More than 33,000 Palestinians, at least 14,500 of them children, have been killed over the last six months, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. Thousands more are buried under the rubble and presumed dead.
- More than 75,000 people have been injured, many with life-changing injuries that will leave them with permanent disabilities; these include more than 1,000 Palestinian children who have lost one or more of their upper or lower limbs.
- An unknown number of Palestinian civilians, reportedly including children, have been unlawfully detained, according to the UN, and must be released.
- Palestinians continue to be killed nearly every day in areas the Israeli government told them to flee. In the first week of 2024, an Israeli airstrike killed 14 people – the majority children – near an area Israeli forces prescribed as a “humanitarian zone.”
- Over 70% of Gaza’s population, around 1.7 million people, has been forcibly displaced. Many followed Israeli-issued orders to relocate south and are now being squeezed into tiny pockets of land that cannot sustain human life, which have become breeding ground for the spread of disease.
Children and families face starvation
- Half of the population of Gaza - around 1.1 million Palestinians - are facing catastrophic levels of hunger and starvation, the highest number ever recorded by the technical humanitarian body responsible for making evidence-based assessments of food insecurity, with famine now imminent in northern Gaza. The entire population of the Gaza Strip - around 2.2 million people - are facing high levels of acute food insecurity.
- More than 70% of Gaza’s homes, much of its schools, and its water and sanitation infrastructure have been destroyed or damaged and left the population with almost no access to clean water.
- Not a single medical facility in the enclave is fully operational and those partially functioning are overwhelmed with trauma cases and shortages of medical supplies and doctors. More than 489 health workers have been killed.
- At least 243 aid workers* in Gaza have been killed, the highest of any conflict in this century.
Gaza today is the most dangerous place to be a child, a journalist, and an aid worker. Hospitals and schools should never become battlegrounds. These conditions have created a situation of utter desperation inside Gaza, leading top aid officials to declare that there are no longer the conditions for a meaningful humanitarian response in Gaza. This will not change until the siege, the bombardment and the fighting ends. In January, the United Nations described humanitarian access as a “significant deterioration.” Israeli forces have repeatedly denied permission for aid convoys to reach areas north of Wadi Gaza where people are at the highest risk of starvation.
In recent weeks, high ranking Israeli officials have begun calling for the deportation of Palestinian civilians out of Gaza. The forcible transfer within Gaza and deportation of a portion of the population across borders, lacking any guarantees of return, would constitute a serious violation of international law, amounting to an atrocity crime.
We demand an immediate ceasefire
We demand an immediate ceasefire and call on all states to halt the transfer of weapons that can be used to commit violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. The UN Security Council must fulfill its responsibility to maintain global peace and security by adopting measures to halt the transfer of weapons to the Government of Israel and Palestinian armed groups and prevent the supply of arms that risk being used in the commission of international crimes, effective immediately.
All states have the obligation to prevent atrocity crimes and promote adherence to norms that protect civilians. The international community is long overdue to live up to these commitments.
Editor’s Note
- This statement was initially published on 24 January 2024, with the endorsement of 16 humanitarian organisations. Since its publishing, more than 250 civil society organisations around the world have endorsed the call. This statement has been updated to reflect figures that are accurate as of 10 April 2024, including the numbers of people killed, including children, aid workers, and health care workers, the number of those injured, and the latest figures in respect to food insecurity released by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classfication.
- Since the original statement was published on 24 January 2024, the following events have occurred:
- On 26 January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued provisional measures in the case of the Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel).
- On 12 February 2024, the Dutch Court ordered the government of Netherlands to stop supplying F35 fighter jet parts to Israel within seven days, due to the risk of serious violations of international humanitarian law.
- On 23 February 2024, UN experts released a joint-statement stating that arms exports to Israel must stop immediately, stating, “The need for an arms embargo on Israel is heightened by the International Court of Justice’s ruling on 26 January 2024 that there is a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza and the continuing serious harm to civilians since then.”
- On 25 March 2024, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 2728 demanding an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan.
- On 28 March 2024, the ICJ issued additional provisional measures alongside observations of the court that “famine is setting in.”
- On 5 April 2024, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution to “cease the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel, the occupying Power…to prevent further violations of international humanitarian law and violations and abuses of human rights.”
- The total number of aid workers killed includes staff members of UN agencies, NGOs, as well as the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. Figures on the annual number of aid workers killed in other context can be found on the Aid Worker Security Database.
Undersigned
- Federation Handicap International - Humanity & Inclusion
- War Child Alliance
- Christian Aid
- Norwegian People’s Aid
- Médecins du Monde International Network
- Mennonite Central Committee
- medico international
- Oxfam
- Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC)
- Danish Refugee Council
- Save the Children
- Plan International
- Norwegian Refugee Council
- Diakonia
- Amnesty International
- American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
- Welfare Association
- War on Want
- War Childhood Museum Foundation
- Palestinian Farmers Union
- WESPAC Foundation, Inc.
- United Nations Association - UK
- Bangladesh Nari Progati Sangha (BNPS)
- Human Rights Sentinel
- IM Swedish Development Partner
- Firefly International
- Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
- Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations (UOSSM) GE
- Nonviolent Peaceforce
- Peace Action
- Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME)
- Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation
- France Palestine Mental Health Network
- Consortium of Ethiopian Human Rights Organizations
- Syrian Network for Human Rights.
- INGO ALG CONSULTANT GROUP
- Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development
- Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
- Middle East Democracy Center (MEDC)
- The National Organization of Yemeni Reporters SADA
- L'Union Juive Française pour la Paix (UJFP)
- Development and Peace - Caritas Canada
- EmpowerVan
- Train of Hope Dortmund e.V.
- Jewish Network for Palestine
- ﻣداﻓﻌﺎت ﻟﻠﺣﻘوق واﻟﺣرﯾﺎت واﻟﺗﻧﻣﯾﮫ
- PELDA
- Ina autra senda - Swiss Friends of Combatants for Peace
- Street Child UK
- Polish Medical Mission
- Peace SOS
- Gender Advisory Team, Cyprus
- Olof Palmes Internationella Center
- Cordaid
- Street Child España
- Share The World's Resources
- Church and Peace - Ecumenical Peace Church Network in Europe
- ForcesWatch
- Vredesactie
- Terre des Hommes Netherlands
- Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights
- Global Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
- Plateforme des ONG
françaises pour la Palestine - PAX
- EuroMed Rights
- Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD)
- The Presbyterian Church in Canada
- The United Church of Canada
- Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
- CIUSSS Centre-Sud
- Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy
- Business Plan for Peace
- Secours Catholique - Caritas France
- Danish Muslim Aid
- Peace Direct
- Belgian Academics and Artists for Palestine (BA4P)
- Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions - UK
- The Dallaire Institute for Children Peace and Security
- Creatura Think & Do Tank
- Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions - Germany
- Legal Action Worldwide (LAW)
- The Hague Peace Projects
- Anglican Pacifist Fellowship
- Nonviolence International
- Primate's World Relief and Development Fund
- Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion
- The Anglican Church of Canada/L'Eglise anglican du Canada
- MADRE
- Ekō
- ReThinking Foreign Policy
- International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) Germany
- Initiatives et Changement (IofC France)
- WeWorld
- Pax Christi - Deutsche Sektion e.V.
- Internationale Liga für Menschenrechte
- Centre for Peace Research and Advocacy -CPRA
- Equal Legal Aid
- Young Christian Students Movement South Africa
- Laurentiuskonvent e.V.
- Socialist Movement of Ghana
- Swedish Fellowship of Reconciliation
- Japan Fellowship of Reconciliation
- Action Corps
- EgyptWide for Human Rights
- Pax Christi International
- International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) - Greece
- Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada
- KAIROS Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives
- Committee of 100 in Finland
- Khulumani Support Group
- Amos Trust
- Sanad Basra Organization for Human Rights
- Association Pour Jérusalem (France)
- Community of Christ
- Avaaz
- Christian Jewish Allies for a Just Peace in Israel/Palestine
- Women Volunteers for Peace
- Forum Computer Professionals for Peace and Societal Responsibility
- Salam For Yemen
- Vereinigung Demokratischer Juristinnen und Juristen e.V. (VDJ)
- Association France Palestine Solidarite Paris-Sud
- Culture de Palestine
- Emmaus International
- Kristna Fredsrörelsen / SweFOR
- Christian Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
- Medical Association for Prevention of War
- HelpAge International
- Quakers in Scotland (General Meeting for Scotland)
- Forum Ziviler Friedensdienst e. V.
- DAWN MENA
- Japan International Volunteer Center (JVC)
- NVMP-Artsen voor vrede
- ActionAid France
- Pax Christi Scotland
- Shujaa-Initiative
- Pax Christi Italia
- Pax Christi - Perú
- Center for Jewish Nonviolence
- Peace Movement Aotearoa
- Center for Peace Education, Miriam College
- Pax Christi England and Wales
- Pax Christi Aotearoa NZ
- Pax Christi Miriam College
- Age International
- Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict
- Arms Information Centre (RIB e.V.)
- Caritas International Belgium
- Medact
- Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
- Feminist Humanitarian Network
- Saferworld
- Mwatana for Human Rights
- The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation
- International Alert
- CIVICUS
- Internationaler Versöhnungsbund - Deutscher Zweig e.V.
- Pax Christi USA
- Caritas Internationalis
- The United Methodist Church — General Board of Church and Society
- Humance Heal For Human Rights
- International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
- Min Haqi Foundation to Empower Women Politically and Economically
- Yoga and Sport with Refugees
- Caesar Families Association
- KinderUSA
- Ocalenie Foundation
- Aura Freedom International
- Finnish-Arab Friendship Society
- Street Child Italy
- Rebuilding Alliance
- Bildungsprojekt Sachsen im Klimawandel
- Diversity Matters North West Ltd
- Un Ponte Per
- Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)
- Terre des Hommes Italy
- Middle East Children's Alliance
- Mercy Corps
- Permanent Peace Movement
- Seenaryo
- Women for Peace and Democracy Nepal (WPD Nepal)
- Muslim Peace Fellowship
- UCOS vzw (UNIVERSITY CENTRE FOR DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION)
- Protection International (PI)
- Women's Right to Education Programme
- Women in Humanitarian Response in Nigeria Initiative
- IANSA Women Network Nigeria
- Muslim Delegates and Allies Coalition
- Mayworks Kjipuktuk/Halifax
- Tamkeen for Legal Aid & Human Rights
- Doctors Against Genocide
- The Rights Forum
- Women for Peace - Finland
- Righting Relations Canada
- Foyer du Monde
- Bahrain Transparency
- Rete Italiana Pace Disarmo
- FundiPau
- Control Arms
- Climate Refugees
- SOL Education Center
- Centro de Estudios Ecuménicos - México
- Daraj Media
- Colombian Campaign to Ban Landmines (CCBL)
- Mujeres para el Dialogo
- Pastoral Social, Iglesia Anglicana de México
- Asociación de familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos y Víctimas de Violaciones a los Derechos Humanos en México AFADEM-FEDEFAM
- Anti-Prison Feminist Project - Sisters in the Shade (Mexico)
- Servicio Paz y Justicia (serpaj)-mexico
- Global Thought
- American Baptist Churches USA
- Sojourners
- Migrant Roots Media
- Citizens for Just Policy
- PEOPLES FEDERATION FOR NATIONAL PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT (PEFENAP)
- Cameroon Youths and Students Forum for Peace (CAMYOSFOP)
- Campaña Colombiana Contra Minas
- Vision GRAM-International
- The United Church of Christ
- Caritas Middle East and North Africa
- Comité pour une Paix Juste au Proche-Orient
- BDS Berlin
- SOMO (Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations)
- Women in Black - Austria
- Collective Aid
- ReFOCUS Media Labs - Poland
- Fund for Global Human Rights
- Omega Research Foundation
- Women for Weapons Trade Transparency
- United Against Inhumanity (UAI)
- Episcopal Peace Fellowship-Palestine Israel Network
- Terre des Hommes International Federation
- CCFD-Terre Solidaire
- COCASEN - Coalición Nacional Contra el Abuso Sexual
- CARE International
- Fundación Ser de Paz AC
- Forum o Disarmament and Development of Sri Lanka
- FTSCD(Forum Togolais de la Société civile pour le Développement)
- Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
- MPower Change Action Fund
- Steirische Friedensplattform
- Minnesota Peace Project
- Académicos con Palestina contra el genocidio
- International Rescue Committee
- Fundación Arcoiris por el respeto a la diversidad sexual
- Broederlijk Delen
- Coordinadora Galega de ONG para o Desenvolvemento
- ARSIS Association for the Social Support of Youth
- Churches for Middle East Peace
- Educo - Spain
- MENA Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (MENAPPAC)
- Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) - Lebanon
- Entraide et Fraternité - Belgium
