Quakers urge end to Rafah offensive
‘It is one of the very few places where extremely limited humanitarian aid is able to enter the Gaza Strip.’
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) has written to the prime minister calling for the UK to use diplomatic pressure to urge Israel to change course.
The letter, signed with other human rights charities and faith organisations, says that the ‘UK must demand that Israel immediately stops its offensive into Rafah and call for a ceasefire now’.
Dated 12 February, the letter highlights the 1.3 million people currently trapped in Rafah, designated a ‘safe zone’ by Israel, and where many Palestinians fled. ‘It is one of the very few places where extremely limited humanitarian aid is able to enter the Gaza Strip.’
‘We are writing with urgent concern about the overnight attacks on Rafah following Israel’s announcement that it aims to conduct a destructive military campaign.’ This intensified last night, says the letter, with a further sixty-seven people killed, mostly civilians.
The letter also calls for the UK government to ‘suspend all arms export licences and any other forms of military support with immediate effect’; and to ‘ensure Israel fully implements the International Court of Justice orders’.
‘We are extremely dismayed and profoundly alarmed after having met with UK senior officials, including the Foreign Secretary, over the last 128 days,’ the signatories say, many of which have worked in the Occupied Palestinian Territory for decades, with staff and partners ‘currently displaced and fearing for their lives in the Gaza Strip’.
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