- Human RightsPalestine
- April 20, 2008
- 3 minutes read
European campaign appeals for saving Gaza patients from impending mass death

The European campaign to lift the siege on Gaza issued an urgent appeal to save the lives of hundreds of patients and wounded in the Gaza Strip from impending mass death which may happen during the coming few days as a result of the Israeli siege on all life essentials especially medicines and fuel supplies.
In a statement received by the PIC, the campaign warned that Israel”s reluctance to provide the Strip with its fuel and medical needs such as nitrous gas used in surgical operations and to allow its patients to travel for treatment is portending a humanitarian disaster which will claim the lives of hundreds of Palestinian citizens during the coming days especially patients.
The campaign added that the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Palestinian people in Gaza contribute to augment the size of this disaster.
The campaign appealed urgently to Egypt to end the daily suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza through opening the Rafah border crossing and allowing in humanitarian needs.
In the same context, the union of Islamic organizations in Europe appealed to the Egyptian president, the Saudi monarch and the Syrian president to work urgently on ending the suffocating Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip imposed more than ten months ago which is foreshadowing an unprecedented catastrophe.
“The suffering in Gaza is no longer a regional problem, but it is now representing a challenge to the feelings of humanity all over the world except some forces which give the occupation the right to do what it likes without taking into account international laws and charters which hold it fully responsible for the humanitarian situation in the areas under its control,” Shakib Bin Makhlouf, the head of the union, underlined in a message sent to Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
“You have promised Mr. president that you would not accept to starve the Palestinian people and we do believe that the conditions no longer allow more delay in saving the Gaza people in light of international reports warning of impending humanitarian catastrophe,” Shakib added in his letter to the Egyptian president.
In his letters to Saudi monarch Abdullah Bin-Abdulaziz and Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad, the head of the union stated: “We in the union of Islamic organizations in Europe, the largest Islamic organization in the continent, we are appealing to you in the name of humanity and the strong ties that bind you with the people of Gaza, who are facing mass murder, to take a historical stand ending the siege on this people whose humanity and right to resist the occupation were denied by the hegemonist forces.”