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<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>December 13, 2023 \u2013 On December 12 2023, LINK 2007 sent a letter to the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, and to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, expressing deep concern about the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and to call with determination for a prolonged ceasefire to halt the indiscriminate shelling. \u201cWe count on your attention to this appeal of ours and on your pressure at bilateral, European and multilateral levels in favour of a ceasefire.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe unequivocally condemn the atrocities committed on 7 October by Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the abduction of Israeli and other nationals held as hostages in the Gaza Strip. The attacks shocked the world and we are counting on all hostages to be released unconditionally,\u2019 stresses Roberto Ridolfi, president of LINK 2007.<\/p>\n
The Israeli government\u2019s response, although \u2018understandable and inevitable, has immediately assumed \u2013 with the siege, the bombardments, the destruction, the mass displacements, the disregard for international humanitarian law, the deaths and injuries \u2013 such a dimension as to produce a humanitarian catastrophe,\u2019 points out Ridolfi, expressing the apprehension of LINK\u2019s NGOs.<\/p>\n
Gaza is 365 square kilometres, a quarter of the size of the City of Rome. Of the 2.3 million people who used to live there in conditions similar to a huge refugee camp, some 1.9 million have been forced to leave their homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo months into the escalation of violence, more than 15,500 people are dead, including 6,300 children and 4,200 women. At least 40,000 are injured. Thousands of people, about half of them children, are missing and may be under the rubble. Food, water, fuel and medical assistance are arriving in droves,\u2019 Ridolfi points out. \u201cDoctors, health and humanitarian workers can no longer respond adequately to the population\u2019s needs or work safely. People even drink seawater. Waste water runs into the streets. The risk of epidemics is very high and could prove devastating for the population already exhausted by two months of war and conditions of severe deprivation\u2019.<\/p>\n
The LINK NGOs also recall that International Humanitarian Law sets insurmountable limits even during war, \u2018starting with the fundamental principle of the proportionality of any kind of armed response\u2019 and that the Fourth Geneva Convention defines \u2018it is a war crime to target civilians, to deny them food, water and protection, to strike hospitals, schools and civilian facilities, wherever this is perpetrated\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ceasefire is indispensable. 15,000 dead and 45,000 injured is already an absurd and unacceptable exaggeration, which is producing new hatred and rancour\u201d. LINK\u2019s NGOs call on President Meloni and Minister Tajani to accept this appeal, which joins the hundreds of thousands of other petitions around the world. \u201cWhat is needed now is to organise a coordinated and adequate humanitarian response to the needs of the civilian population, to ensure access to humanitarian aid and medical care, to allow the resumption of negotiations for the release of all hostages, and to give respite and protection to the population, children and women in particular\u201d.<\/p>\n
HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE LETTER<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE PRESS RELEASE<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n For further information:<\/p>\n Mail: comunicazione@link2007.org<\/p>\n Phone: +39 3271825646<\/p>\n Press review:<\/p>\n 12.14.2023: La Repubblica Mondo Solidale, Cease fire on Gaza\u201d: the appeal of the association of major Italian NGOs<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n