Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) welcomes the announcement of an agreement between Israel and Hamas to suspend hostilities in Gaza. While we hope this temporary pause will save Palestinian lives and alleviate some of the suffering the Israeli military has inflicted on Gaza, it marks the beginning, not the end, of efforts to restore health, dignity and freedom to the Palestinian people.
Israel’s war on Palestinians in Gaza, which has included acts that UN human rights experts and the International Court of Justice have concluded may amount to genocide, has killed almost 50,000 Palestinians, injured more than 109,000, forced more than 1.9 million people from their homes, and turned most of Gaza’s infrastructure into rubble. The healthcare system has been systematically dismantled and left in ruins, with no fully-functioning hospitals, and 1,060 healthcare workers killed.
Palestinian lives continue to be critically endangered by illness, disease, starvation, and a lack of access to adequate healthcare following the systematic dismantling of Gaza’s health system by the Israeli military. Guaranteeing full, unrestricted, safe and sustained access for aid and relief teams into and across all of Gaza, including by opening all of the crossings, is the only way to enable the scale of relief efforts needed to save lives, and must be an urgent priority for the international community.
A temporary suspension of hostilities is far from sufficient to address the magnitude of destruction and suffering inflicted on the Palestinian people. This pause also comes tragically too late for the tens of thousands of Palestinians killed, injured, and starved by Israeli forces.
The international community must therefore ensure that this pause progresses into a full and permanent ceasefire, ensuring there is no return to Israel’s devastating military bombardment and ending the suffocating siege of Gaza.
Fikr Shalltoot, MAP’s Gaza Director, said: “For 15 months, Palestinians in Gaza have experienced an existential threat to their survival from the Israeli military. Only a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire can allow for the urgent rebuilding of Gaza. This must include the safe return of displaced people to their homes and access to the resources they need to rebuild, the full restoration of Palestinian health and dignity, and an end to the erasure of Gaza.”
“Governments, including the UK, must take this opportunity to change course, and ensure this deal heralds the end of Israel’s atrocities. As well as rapid rebuilding and redevelopment of homes and the health system, this must be the first step on a road towards justice and freedom for people in Gaza.”
Since October 2023, MAP has delivered the largest aid operation in its history, providing essential drugs and disposables, hygiene kits, food packages, and shelter supplies, and mobilising emergency medical teams to support people in Gaza.
Our local team has endured unimaginable conditions for more than 15 months, demonstrating extraordinary resolve and commitment. We stand fully prepared to scale up our response even further and deliver more lifesaving humanitarian aid as and when conditions on the ground, including access through crossings into Gaza, allow.
Mohammed Alkhatib, MAP’s Deputy Director of Programmes in Gaza, said: “If this is just a temporary pause in hostilities, I’m concerned that things will go back to how they were. It feels like one chapter is closing, and another chapter of problems and concerns is opening. For people who don’t have homes to return to, what’s next for them?”
MAP reiterates that a permanent and just peace will only be achieved by ending impunity and upholding Palestinians’ rights to self-determination. Any attempt by Israel to annex or settle parts of Gaza, or further parts of the West Bank, must be counteracted. The international community must now commit to ending the long-standing root causes of violence and humanitarian needs in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Israel’s illegal occupation, blockade and widespread violations of international law.
MAP therefore reiterates its call on the UK Government to suspend all arms sales to Israel including parts for F-35 fighter jets; signal clearly that it will uphold the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court; and outline how it will uphold the International Court of Justice’s demand that Israel’s illegal occupation be brought rapidly to an end.