Dear Editor: Israel has blocked almost all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza since early March. According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) partnership, 925,000 people are nearing starvation. Officials are warning of potential “mass deaths” from hunger in coming days.
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Save the Children, Mercy Corps, and Oxfam are among the 109 aid groups working in Gaza who signed a joint statement that says their colleagues and the people they serve are starving: “Humanitarian organisations are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes.”
According to the BBC News, an aid worker providing psychosocial support spoke of the devastating impact on children: ‘Children tell their parents they want to go to heaven, because at least heaven has food.’”
Over 21,000 American Jews, including over 700 rabbis and dozens of artists, writers, and community leaders, have demanded humanitarian access and an end to Israel’s food aid blockade. Pope Leo XIV appealed to the international community “to observe humanitarian law and respect the obligation to protect [Palestinian] civilians as well as the prohibition of collective punishment.”
“We’ve been banned from bringing in any humanitarian assistance into Gaza for more than four months now,” said UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees director of communication, Juliette Touma. “We have 6,000 trucks waiting in places like Egypt, like Jordan; it’s from Jordan to the Gaza Strip it’s a three-hour drive, right?”
As Israel’s largest military funder, the United States has the power to demand humanitarian access and an end to Israel’s food aid blockade. Our elected officials need to act. We need to let them know that it is disgraceful that the United States is allowing Israel to use mass starvation of civilians as a weapon of war against Palestinians in Gaza.
I urge you to join me in contacting Senators Murkowski and Sullivan and Representative Begich and asking them them to explain how they are, or are not, responding to this dire humanitarian crisis, which is supported by U.S. funding and policy:
Murkowski: (202) 224-6665
Sullivan: (202) 224-3004
Begich: (202) 225-5765
For more immediate action, Gaza Soup Kitchen is one of the few organizations that continues to serve hot meals every day, in spite of scarcity and high food prices: https://gazasoupkitchen.com/
Middle East Children’s Alliance and its partners have provided direct aid, including food, to children in Palestine since 1988. It has a Charity Navigator score of 100%, earning it a Four-Star rating. You can give with confidence: https://www.mecaforpeace.org/
Thank you.
Cindy Litman, Sitka
