This is a press statement from Charles Clayton, the director of World Vision Jerusalem on the need for a cease fire and the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Charles was the executive director of World Vision UK when I served as Press Officer there in 1994-97. He continues to do great work on behalf of the m0st vulnerable.
For immediate release
14 January
More than 200 lives lost since UN call for ceasefire aid agencies say
Three hour lull in fighting will not redress the full-blown humanitarian crisis - only an immediate ceasefire will helpA group of leading international aid agencies today said that more than 200 lives have been lost since the UN passed its binding resolution stipulating an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Israel which was dismissed by the conflicting parties.
The agencies called on both parties to end the killings and heed Ban Ki Moon’s appeal – as he arrives in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory - for an immediate ceasefire that will end the civilian suffering and endangerment and allow local and international aid agencies to provide desperately needed relief safely and without impediment. The international community must throw its full weight behind Ban Ki Moon’s efforts and ensure that the UN resolution is promptly enforced.
Since the UN Security Council called for a ceasefire on 8th January there have been:
More than 200 people killed
More than 1,300 people injured
Three hospitals hit by the bombing“Putting an end to violence and civilian casualties is not a option, it is an obligation”, says Charles Clayton, Nation Director for World Vision Jerusalem. “We cannot stress enough that the current situation in the Gaza Strip needs to be addressed without further delay. Too many people have died already.”
The agencies – Save the Children, Oxfam International, World Vision Jerusalem, Christian Aid, CARE International – added that the three-hour ‘lull’ in the fighting, which is now only restricted to Gaza City, detracts attention away from the immediate need to reach a durable ceasefire that would allow aid agencies to carry out much needed humanitarian work throughout the Gaza Strip, including reaching communities that have been completely cut off by the conflict. The slim window of time each day is not nearly enough to address the dire humanitarian situation on the ground. Moreover, some fighting usually continues during the ‘lulls’ so humanitarian workers and the civilian population risk their lives moving around the Gaza Strip.
“With shelters overflowing, food shortages, inadequate facilities and the general sense of panic and abandonment felt, we must be allowed to sufficiently assist the needy population of the Gaza Strip at once”, says David Bourns, Country Director for Save the Children.
Last week, CARE International staff were forced to flee a food distribution site as heavy bombing began to fall in the area. Distributions of food take at least five hours per delivery, and a daily delivery of medical supplies took 11 hours last week – far longer than the three-hour lull. Even with an increase in the number of workers packing and dispatching, the needs of clinics and hospitals can’t be met in the short time frame.
World Vision has begun a substantial relief operation to bring food and blankets to 50,000 people who are in extreme need. This whole process will be jeopardized unless the organization is given safe and unfettered access into Gaza. The sequence of delivering aid from border to warehouse and from warehouse to the population is currently a big gamble in lives and material.
Despite the danger to staff and the children and families they are trying to reach, Save the Children has distributed food rations to 20,000 people — more than half of them children — since Sunday, January 4. Food distribution involves large quantities of supplies and vehicles and requires hours to complete efficiently. Reaching vulnerable people is complicated by the fact that families are often fearful to venture out to distribution sites. Save the Children has also warned that the number of supply trucks entering Gaza is entirely insufficient given the extraordinary need created by the conflict.
Oxfam International said that it is impossible to effectively circulate internally within Gaza Strip during the 3-hour lull. Oxfam’s seven staff members in Gaza, a majority of who have themselves been displaced due to the violence, are also struggling to deliver urgently-needed food to thousands of civilians in such a tight space of time. Oxfam’s local health partners are providing emergency medical care to victims of the conflict, under extraordinarily difficult circumstances with the Palestinian health system on the brink of collapse.
“On the best days, the lulls are barely long enough to distribute a minimum of aid to the people who need it. In most cases, it’s simply not sufficient time to provide adequate assistance for such a devastated and desperate civilian population. It’s akin to putting a band-aid on a bullet wound when surgery and life support is what is needed,” said John Prideaux-Brune, Country Director for Oxfam Great-Britain.
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For more information please contact:
Michael Robin Bailey (Oxfam International): +972 (0) 223 30 14
David Bourns (Save the Children): +972 (0) 54 313 4280
Allyn Dhynes (World Vision Jerusalem): +972 (0) 54 749 509
Hanan Elmasu (Christian Aid): +44 (0) 793 2022715
Martha Myers (CARE International): +972 (0) 54 779 7736
This statement by Charles shows the depth of the need for an immediate ceasefire by all parties, for the lifting of the blockade of Gaza which has caused such distress and the acceptance by all groups and governments of the need to find a way to lasting peace with justice. Israel has used excessive force with little concern for Gaza’s children to respond to Hamas, which is itself wrongly using force as a response to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and blockade of Gaza. It’s a vicious circle and Israel’s hands are covered in blood.
Charles Clayton and his team are doing fantastic work for the most vulnerable and poorest people of the region. He is a good man devoting himself to making other people’s lives better. We should all support the work of World Vision.
I do not agree.
My lifetime of support for World Vision has ended now the “rose-tinted glasses” of the World Vision of today is being exposed.
World Vision’s website states they have been working in “the Holy Land” since 1975 and “assisting the Palestinian people”.
For “Holy Land” read Israel. Their office is in Jerusalem along with hordes of other ex-pat journalists, critics, commentators and others passing through who abuse the liberal democracy and shelter that Israel provides to perpetuate their own personal perspective.
In this case, it is an abuse of a Christian perspective.
The repeated references in World Vision literature to Gaza as “an occupied Palestinian Territory” gives the game away.
Israel left Gaza in 2005 and left behind a thriving community with the potential for a prosperous future with the best in Israeli technology at their disposal. Internecine fighting and struggles within the Palestinian political factions have brought about the situation in Gaza.
World Vision workers would have been well aware of Hamas depots in schools and community centres and rocket launches form school properties including while school was in session.
I , for one, would like a comprehensive report on exactly what World Vision is doing in “advocating for a just and comprehensive peace between Palestinians and Israelis so that all can live in peace and prosperty” as their literature states.
And a full account of how much money they have poured into the Palestinian Territories since 1975 and evidence of actual gains made.
Hi im looking for the Jerusalem Office STREET address I sponsor two children in Gaza and Worldvision told me that they cant give me the Worldvision Jerusalem Office street address. The reason I want it is to courier a gift to both my sponsor children as the courier company need a street address (I don’t want anything stolen thats why I want to do it this way). But the Worldvision call centre seems to have a lack of information and I feel that as a sponsor im entitled to all INFORMATION on Worldvision offices and their work. Im soo mad at them I even said (bluffing of course) that I would cancel my sponsorship unless they find a street address for me. You know what they said “go ahead and cancel it”!!! AHHH they don’t care