OCTOBER 7, 2024
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Islamic Relief USA, a nonprofit humanitarian and advocacy organization, issued the following statement on the impending one-year mark of the escalation in Gaza.
“Islamic Relief USA is saddened to witness the world community’s abject failure to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” said Ahmed Shehata, Islamic Relief USA’s Chief Executive Officer. “Over the past year, we have seen international law violated regularly, with thousands of civilians killed and wounded, and starvation skyrocketing, as food is blocked from reaching children. Entire neighborhoods are now rubble, and schools, hospitals and religious sites have all come under unprecedented attack.
“Numerous humanitarian workers, medics, teachers and journalists have been killed in Gaza this past year. Gaza’s entire society and infrastructure is being destroyed.
“As the crisis spreads, IRUSA continues to call for an immediate and lasting ceasefire across the region. International governments must demand an end to the escalations on civilians and violations of international law. We want to see a lasting peace where all civilians can live in safety and dignity, and have their same fundamental human rights upheld.”
Despite the enormous challenges, Islamic Relief staff and local partners have delivered aid almost every single day over the past year. This includes cooking and distributing more than 40 million hot meals for displaced families who have nothing else to eat, providing water to 110,000 people a day, supplying nutritional supplements to 35,000 pregnant women and young children every 2 weeks, and running psychosocial support sessions for over 94,000 children.
Still, enormous challenges lie ahead. One in every 16 people in Gaza are now killed or wounded, with more than 41,000 people killed and 96,000 injured. Around 1.9 million people – 90 percent of the population – are now displaced from their homes, most of them having to move multiple times as nowhere is safe. Some 60 percent of homes and 68 percent of roads are damaged or destroyed, and more than half of hospitals and health facilities have been forced to shut down. Some 85 percent of schools have been bombed, hundreds of teachers killed, and 625,000 children have now been out of
school for a whole year, with enormous implications for future generations. The relentless crisis is having a devastating psychological toll.
Almost all civilians are facing severe shortages of food, with young children at immediate risk of starvation and facing long-term impacts of malnutrition such as stunted growth and impaired cognitive development.
Given these grim realities, Islamic Relief USA urges the world community to call for a lasting ceasefire, as well as enable life-saving aid (food, clothing, medicine, among other items) to enter the region unimpeded.
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MEDIA CONTACT
Syed M. Hassan
mhassan@irusa.org or
(571) 421-7032 (CELL)
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Islamic Relief USA, based in Alexandria, VA, is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) humanitarian organization. Its mission is to provide relief and development in a dignified manner regardless of gender, race, or religion, and works to empower individuals in their communities and give them a voice in the world. Its programs benefit millions of people each year in more than 40 countries around the world, including in the United States.
Islamic Relief USA is on the U.S. government’s Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) charity list, and it is also a signatory to the code of conduct of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.