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Aid Groups Demand 'Decisive Action' From World Leaders to Stop Israel's Genocide in Gaza
Leaders of 22 NGOs say if nations continue to treat their legal obligations to oppose genocide "as optional, they are not only complicit but are setting a dangerous precedent for the future. History will undoubtedly judge this moment as a test of humanity. And we are failing."
Sep 17, 2025
The heads of 22 international aid organizations on Wednesday issued a joint statement following a UN commission's finding that Israel is carrying out a genocide in the Gaza Strip, which calls on governments worldwide to end their complicity with the carnage by intervening forcefully to halt the brutal assault on the Palestinian people that has left many tens of thousands dead and the entirety of the population living under famine conditions and constant bombardment with no safe place to seek refuge.
While the nearly two dozen groups who backed the statement—including ActionAid International, Oxfam, Médecins Sans Frontières, and the Norwegian Refugee Council—have tirelessly advocated for an end to the carnage in Gaza, the UN Commission of Inquiry report released Tuesday bolstered their calls that what Israel is doing to the people of Gaza is nothing short of "genocidal."
"The inhumanity of the situation in Gaza is unconscionable," the Wednesday joint statement reads. "As humanitarian leaders, we have borne direct witness to the horrifying deaths and suffering of the people of Gaza. Our warnings have gone unheeded and thousands more lives are still at stake."
Noting the Israeli military's ground invasion of Gaza City this week, which requires the forced displacement of approximately a million people in the city with nowhere to safely go, the group warns that "we are on the precipice of an even deadlier period in Gaza’s story if action is not taken. Gaza has been deliberately made uninhabitable."
Despite months and months of repeated calls to intervene, Israel's allies—including the United States and others—have refused to withdraw their support for Israel's military offensive and a humanitarian blockade that has resulted in mass starvation. The US government, Israel's most powerful ally and chief supplier of weapons, has continued to send arms and the Trump administration defends the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right ministers on the world stage.
In their declaration, the groups said the international community must act forcefully now or be forever remembered in history as complicit.
"The UN enshrined international law as the cornerstone of global peace and security," the statement reads. "If Member States continue to treat these legal obligations as optional, they are not only complicit but are setting a dangerous precedent for the future. History will undoubtedly judge this moment as a test of humanity. And we are failing."
On Tuesday, in response to the UN commission report, others made similar arguments.
“The Commission of Inquiry joins a growing number of international human rights bodies and experts in concluding that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza," said Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, which was not among the signers of Wednesday's letter but has echoed its message time and again.
“There is no more time for excuses: as the evidence of Israel’s genocide continues to mount the international community cannot claim they didn’t know. This report must compel states to take immediate action and fulfill their legal and moral obligation to halt Israel’s genocide. The international community, especially those states with influence on Israel, must exert all possible diplomatic, economic, and political pressure to ensure an immediate and lasting ceasefire and unhindered humanitarian access to Gaza.
The statement in full, along with the signatories, follows:
As world leaders convene next week at the United Nations, we are calling on all member states to act in accordance with the mandate the UN was charged with 80 years ago.
What we are witnessing in Gaza is not only an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, but what the UN Commission of Inquiry has now concluded is a genocide.
With this finding, the Commission joins a growing number of human rights organisations and leaders globally, and within Israel.
The inhumanity of the situation in Gaza is unconscionable. As humanitarian leaders, we have borne direct witness to the horrifying deaths and suffering of the people of Gaza. Our warnings have gone unheeded and thousands more lives are still at stake.
Now, as the Israeli government has ordered the mass displacement of Gaza City – home to nearly one million people – we are on the precipice of an even deadlier period in Gaza’s story if action is not taken. Gaza has been deliberately made uninhabitable.
About 65,000 Palestinians have now been killed, including more than 20,000 children. Thousands more are missing, buried under the rubble that has replaced Gaza’s once lively streets.
Nine out of 10 people in Gaza’s 2.1 million population have been forcibly displaced - most of them multiple times - into increasingly shrinking pockets of land that cannot sustain human life.
More than half a million people are starving. Famine has been declared and is spreading. The cumulative impact of hunger and physical deprivation means people are dying every day.
Throughout Gaza, entire cities have been razed to the ground, along with their life-sustaining public infrastructure, such as hospitals and water treatment plants. Agricultural land has been systemically destroyed.
If the facts and numbers aren’t enough, we have harrowing story upon harrowing story.
Since the Israeli military tightened its siege six months ago, blocking food, fuel, and medicine, we witnessed children and families waste away from starvation as famine took hold. Our colleagues too have been impacted.
Many of us have been into Gaza. We have met countless Palestinians who have lost limbs as a result of Israel’s bombardment. We have personally met children so traumatized by daily airstrikes that they cannot sleep. Some cannot speak. Others have told us they want to die to join their parents in heaven.
We have met families who eat animal food to survive and boil leaves as a meal for their children.
Yet world leaders fail to act. Facts are ignored. Testimony is cast aside. And more people are killed as a direct consequence.
Our organisations, together with Palestinian civil society groups, the UN, and Israeli human rights organisations, can only do so much. We have tirelessly tried to defend the rights of the people of Gaza and sustain humanitarian assistance, but we are being obstructed every step of the way.
We have been denied access, and the militarization of the aid system has proved deadly. Thousands of people have been shot at while trying to reach the handful of sites where food is distributed under armed guard.
Governments must act to prevent the evisceration of life in the Gaza Strip, and to end the violence and occupation. All parties must disavow violence against civilians, adhere to international humanitarian law and pursue peace.
States must use every available political, economic, and legal tool at their disposal to intervene. Rhetoric and half measures are not enough. This moment demands decisive action.
The UN enshrined international law as the cornerstone of global peace and security. If Member States continue to treat these legal obligations as optional, they are not only complicit but are setting a dangerous precedent for the future. History will undoubtedly judge this moment as a test of humanity. And we are failing. Failing the people of Gaza, failing the hostages, and failing our own collective moral imperative."
CEO SIGN OFF (alphabetical)
- Arthur Larok, Secretary General of ActionAid International
- Othman Moqbel, Chief Executive Officer, Action For Humanity
- Joyce Ajlouny, General Secretary of American Friends Service Committee
- Sean Carroll, President and CEO of Anera
- Reintje Van Haeringen, Executive Director CARE International
- Jonas Nøddekær, Secretary General of DanChurchAid
- Charlotte Slente, Secretary General of the Danish Refugee Council
- Manuel Patrouillard, Managing Director, Humanity & Inclusion - Handicap International
- Jamie Munn, Executive Director, International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA)
- Waseem Ahmad, CEO, Islamic Relief Worldwide
- Joseph Belliveau, Executive Director of MedGlobal
- Joel Weiler, Executive Director of Médecins du Monde France
- Nicolás Dotta, Executive Director of Médecins du Monde Spain
- Christopher Lockyear, Secretary General of Médecins Sans Frontières International
- Kenneth Kim, Executive Director, Mennonite Central Committee Canada
- Ann Graber Hershberger, Executive Director, Mennonite Central Committee US
- Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council
- Amitabh Behar, Oxfam International Executive Director
- Simon Panek, CEO, People in Need
- Inger Ashing, CEO of Save the Children International
- Donatella Vergara, President of Terre des Hommes Italy
- Rob Williams, CEO of War Child Alliance
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Gaza Aid Survey Details Israel's 'Disregard of International Law'
"Without accountability and a commitment to protecting humanitarian operations, we risk repeating the same cycles of impunity and neglect," said one campaigner.
Jan 28, 2025
A survey published Tuesday of 35 organizations working in Gaza found that Israel has failed to improve access to lifesaving humanitarian aid in the embattled Palestinian enclave—despite three separate orders from the International Court of Justice to do so over the past year.
The first of those ICJ directives, issued on January 26, 2024, ordered Israel to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza and provide basic services and humanitarian assistance to its approximately 2.3 million people. The overwhelming majority of Gazans have been forcibly displaced—often multiple times—sickened, or starved, their suffering exacerbated by Israel's "complete siege." According to Gaza officials, Israel's 15-month assault has left around 170,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing.
"As the survey shows, Israel completely failed to improve humanitarian conditions."
Groups participating in the survey—including Oxfam, Islamic Relief, Médecins du Monde, ActionAid, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), and the Norwegian Refugee Council—found that Israel has "systematically denied and restricted aid, supplies, and services both into and within Gaza" since the ICJ's January 2024 order. This tracks with previous reporting from human rights groups warning that Israel has flouted all three ICJ directives, which were also issued in March and May.
Among the survey's findings:
- 89% of respondents said that Israeli actions regarding the provision of aid had worsened since the ICJ's ruling;
- 93% said the humanitarian situation for the people receiving their aid and services had deteriorated;
- 100% of surveyed agencies importing humanitarian supplies into Gaza said Israeli procedures for aid entry were either ineffective, had systematically impeded the humanitarian response, or were insufficient to meet the huge needs;
- 95% of agencies who imported aid supplies inside the Gaza Strip said they regularly encountered delays, some of them lasting two months or longer; and
- Agencies reported essential items like personal protective equipment (PPE), tarpaulins, winterization supplies, mobile kitchens, hygiene kits, food, and educational materials being denied due to the "dual use" procedure—because Israel deemed there was potential for them to be utilized for military use.
The survey results came a week into a fragile cease-fire between Hamas and Israel—which has already been accused of breaking the truce, including by killing civilians, a 5-year-old girl among them, and firing on medical workers.
"Given the volume of aid now entering Gaza, it is clear how much Israel has been obstructing the humanitarian response for the last 15 months," Oxfam policy lead Bushra Khalidi said in a statement. "As the survey shows, Israel completely failed to improve humanitarian conditions, in disregard of international law, while systematically preventing lifesaving aid from getting in."
"It is vital to assess past failures, even amid a cease-fire," Khalidi added. "Without accountability and a commitment to protecting humanitarian operations, we risk repeating the same cycles of impunity and neglect, leaving millions without hope of a better future."
The survey also coincides with hundreds of thousands of Gazans trying to return to their obliterated neighborhoods. Returning refugees report being blocked by both rubble and Israeli troops, who are sometimes using deadly force. More—but nowhere near enough—aid is finally reaching Gazans following the cease-fire.
"Now that aid is getting into Gaza, the next weeks will be critical but challenging, given the level of destruction Israel has rained down upon Gaza and its near-total decimation of the humanitarian infrastructure and operational capacity," Médecins du Monde president Dr. Jean-François Corty said on Tuesday.
The agencies that produced the survey are calling for continued and unimpeded access to humanitarian aid in Gaza, as well as for Israel to be held accountable for alleged war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The ICJ is currently weighing a South Africa-led genocide case against Israel. Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri.
"The international community must abide by its obligations under international law and ensure that the cease-fire becomes permanent, so Palestinians in Gaza have access to everything they need to survive without conditions and rebuild their lives equally as every human being deserves," AFSC Palestine/Israel country representative Hanady Muhiar stressed.
"Without meaningful accountability, the suffering will only deepen, and the path to justice and peace will remain blocked."
The communication and advocacy coordinator at ActionAid, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Riham Jafari, asserted that "it is essential that humanitarian access is not only immediate but sustained and unimpeded."
"The rights of Palestinians in Gaza must be protected from acts of genocide, and Israel must be held to account for its continued violations of international law," Jafari added. "Without meaningful accountability, the suffering will only deepen, and the path to justice and peace will remain blocked."
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Violating Cease-Fire Deal, Israel Won't Withdraw Troops From Lebanon Before Deadline
"A renewal of hostilities would be a devastating blow for civilians still struggling to rebuild their lives," said one humanitarian worker.
Jan 24, 2025
The Trump administration on Friday called for a "short, temporary cease-fire extension" between Israel and Lebanon after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country's troops will not complete its withdrawal from southern Lebanon as it agreed to in a 60-day truce that began in late November.
Under the terms of the cease-fire, Israel agreed to withdraw its military from southern Lebanon by January 26, and the Lebanese political and paramilitary group Hezbollah was required to move its forces north of the Litani River and dismantle all military infrastructure in the south.
Netanyahu's office claimed Friday that "the cease-fire agreement has not yet been fully enforced by the Lebanese state" and said its "gradual withdrawal process will continue, in full coordination with the United States."
Israel asserted that the truce allowed for the withdrawal process to "continue beyond 60 days—a claim the Lebanese government and Hezbollah refuted—and claimed the Lebanese army had allowed Hezbollah to regroup since the cease-fire began.
Hezbollah called Israel's plan to maintain a military presence in southern Lebanon past the deadline a "blatant violation of the agreement."
As Hezbollah warned it would consider the cease-fire null and void if Israel does not withdraw by January 26, White House National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes said an extension of the deadline is "urgently needed."
Emile Hokayem of the International Institute for Strategic Studies said Israel's "unilteral extension... is clearly a violation of the November cease-fire," while Lebanese American journalist Rania Khalek noted that Israel "has been violating the cease-fire the entire time with zero international condemnation."
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said that while the cease-fire has significantly reduced casualties in Lebanon following 14 months of fighting between the Israel Defense Forces and Hezbollah, at least 29 civilians have been killed since the truce began.
"While the cease-fire seems intact on paper, civilians in Lebanon continued to be killed and their homes blown up by the Israeli military," said Maureen Philippon, Lebanon country director for the NRC.
Prior to the cease-fire deal in November, the conflict killed at least 3,823 people and injured 15,859, as well as displacing tens of thousands of people in Israel and over 1 million in Lebanon. More than 100,000 people in Lebanon have still been unable to return to their homes.
"We have been displaced from our village for 16 months," a Lebanese citizen named Rakad, who fled the border town of Yarine, told the NRC. "We are all waiting for the 27th to go back, kiss the soil of our land, and breathe the air of our village."
Israel's likely delay in withdrawing troops comes as Lebanese residents have begun returning to their villages in the south, but the Lebanese military on Friday called on civilians not to return to the coastal town of Naquora, which Mayor Abbas Awada told Al Jazeera "has become a disaster zone of a town."
"The bare necessities of life are absent here," said the mayor.
The NRC warned that the "continued presence of Israeli troops in dozens of villages in southern Lebanon severely restricts the freedom of movement and leaves many in a prolonged state of displacement."
Philippon called on regional and international mediators to "ensure this truce evolves into a lasting cease-fire, with a firm commitment to protecting all civilians and civilian infrastructure."
"A renewal of hostilities would be a devastating blow for civilians still struggling to rebuild their lives," said Philippon. "Lebanese villagers are still being warned against returning to their homes and lands, while many others don't even know what happened to the house they left months ago. These people will need all the stability and support they can get to get back on their feet after. Israel must withdraw from these villages so that thousands can go back."
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