December 13, 2023 – LINK2007 PRESS RELEASE
On 12 December 2023, the LINK 2007 network sent a letter to the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, and to the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, expressing deep concern for the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and asking with determination for a prolonged ceasefire that stops the indiscriminate bombings. “We count on your attention to our appeal and on your pressure at the bilateral, European and multilateral levels in favour of the ceasefire”.
“We unequivocally condemn the atrocities committed on October 7th by Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the kidnapping of citizens of Israel and other countries held as hostages in the Gaza Strip. The attacks have shocked the world and we hope that all the hostages will be released unconditionally”, underlines Roberto Ridolfi, president of LINK 2007.
The response of the Israeli Government, although “understandable and inevitable, immediately assumed – with the siege, the bombings, the destruction, the mass displacements, the contempt for international humanitarian law, the deaths and the wounded – such a dimension as to produce a humanitarian catastrophe”, highlights Ridolfi, expressing the apprehension of the LINK NGOs.
Gaza has an extension of 365 square km, a quarter of that of the Municipality of Rome. Of the 2.3 million people who usually lived there in conditions similar to a huge refugee camp, around 1.9 million were forced to leave their homes.
“Two months after the escalation of violence, more than 15,500 people have died, including 6,300 children and 4,200 women. At least 40,000 were injured. Thousands of people, about half of them children, are missing and could be under the rubble. Food, water, fuel and medical assistance arrive drop by drop”, Ridolfi remarks. “Doctors, health workers and humanitarian workers can no longer respond adequately to the amount of needs of the population or work safely. People even drink seawater. Wastewater flows into the streets. The risk of epidemics is very strong and could prove devastating for the population already exhausted by two months of war and conditions of severe deprivation”.
The LINK NGOs also recall that International Humanitarian Law also sets insurmountable limits during the war, “starting from the fundamental principle of proportionality of every type of armed response” and that the Fourth Geneva Convention defines “a war crime to take targeting civilians, denying them food, water and protection, targeting hospitals, schools and civilian facilities, wherever this is perpetrated.”
Counting on the attention and commitment of the Italian Government, LINK “The ceasefire is essential. 15,000 dead and 45,000 injured are already an absurd and unacceptable exaggeration, which is producing new hatred and resentment.” The LINK NGOs appeal to President Meloni and Minister Tajani to accept this appeal, which joins the hundreds of thousands of petitions throughout the world. “It is needed immediately, also to organize a coordinated and adequate humanitarian response to the needs of the civilian population, ensure access to humanitarian aid and medical care, allow the resumption of negotiations for the release of all the hostages, give respite and protection to the population, children and women in particular”.
For more information:
Email: comunicazione@link2007.org
Telephone: +39 3271825646
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