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Anti-siege NGO calls for international solidarity with Gaza Strip, lifting persisting blockade

Saturday, 02 January 2021 6:42 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 02 January 2021 6:42 PM ]

Palestinian children clad in masks and face-shields ride a bus in Gaza City amid the coronavirus pandemic, November 17, 2020. (Photo by AFP)

A Palestinian NGO has called for making 2021 a year of reactivating the international, Arab and Islamic solidarity with the besieged Gaza Strip, urging the resumption of efforts to remove a 14-year-long inhumane blockade on its desperate inhabitants.

Jamal al-Khudari, head of the Popular Committee against the Siege (PCAS), made the call in a press release on Saturday, trying to mobilize worldwide support for lifting the persisting Israeli-imposed siege against the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Information Center reported.

“It is essential to revive the popular solidarity with Gaza in the streets of Europe through organizing marches, sit-ins, protests, events, and activities, in addition to networking with rights and legal institutions and activating the legal efforts to criminalize the blockade,” said Khudari, who is also a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC).

He also highlighted the necessity for establishing international parliamentary committees delegated to make efforts to put an end to the crippling Gaza siege and resuming the organization of Gaza-bound humanitarian aid convoys.

The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli blockade from air, sea, and land since June 2007. It has caused a decline in the standard of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty.

According to PCAS, Some 85 percent of the densely-populated Gaza Strip, which is home to two million people, is living under the poverty line.

The economic situation across Palestinian lands worsened after the US in 2019 cut all its financial aid for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

The cuts in humanitarian aid hit hundreds of thousands of the most vulnerable people, especially in Gaza, where 80 percent are dependent on aid.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Khudari stressed that the Israeli blockade on Gaza has caused considerable damage to all aspects of life in the enclave, particularly amid the COVID-19 pandemic that placed an additional burden on the health sector.

Since 2008, Israel has waged three major wars against Gaza, killing thousands of people each time and shattering the impoverished territory’s already poor infrastructure.

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