The IMO has described the current situation in Gaza as “intolerable” and it requires “urgent international action”.
In a statement today, the Organisation noted that healthcare workers “are among those starving”, even while striving to treat the wounded and care for communities under “appalling” conditions.
“The health system in Gaza has collapsed,” the IMO said in its statement. “Doctors are being forced to deliver care in conditions that defy belief. They are under constant threat, without adequate equipment, and often without electricity or clean water.”
Medical workers in Gaza have been injured or killed in the course of their work.
“The IMO expresses its deepest solidarity with healthcare workers in Gaza and their families and salutes their courage and commitment to their work.”
Noting that the UN has reported that the worst-case scenario of famine is now unfolding in Gaza, the IMO called for the “full and immediate” lifting of all barriers to humanitarian aid.
“Aid must be allowed to flow safely and freely through non-partisan and trusted international partners such as the UN. The deliberate obstruction of humanitarian aid and targeting of aid sites is a gross violation of the Geneva Conventions and their protocols.”
In June the IMO President Dr Anne Dee wrote directly to the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, expressing “grave concern and fear” amid “mass starvation arising from a deliberate blockade of aid (by the State of Israel)”. In her letter, Dr Dee strongly criticised the actions of Israel.
“We are seeing blatant contraventions of international humanitarian law by the State of Israel, and I urge the Irish Government to do all in its power, nationally and through international organisations, to end this horror and to ensure that Israel honours its obligations under international law.”
She wrote that “we abhor the actions of Hamas and we call for the return of hostages and an immediate ceasefire. But what we are witnessing in Gaza at the moment is mass starvation arising from a deliberate blockade of aid through well-established partnerships, by the State of Israel.”