Canada must help make the immediate ceasefire a reality
In December. On December 12, Canada joined 153 countries in voting in favor of a United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. Yet today – more than six weeks later – Israel’s relentless and indiscriminate strikes and siege of Gaza continue to unleash unfathomable levels of suffering on the entire population.
As Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams witness new horrors and this catastrophic humanitarian crisis unfolds, we call on the Canadian government to turn its call for a ceasefire at the UNGA into concrete action to the nearly two million Palestinians still trapped. Gaza.
Over the past three months, Israel’s all-out assault on Gaza has significantly reduced people’s opportunities to access medical care. The safe space for organizations like MSF to provide health care to populations is now almost non-existent. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), only 13 hospitals in Gaza are now partially functional, and the two main hospitals in southern Gaza are operating with three times their bed capacity while rapidly running out of basic supplies.
New horrors continue to unfold
In the weeks since the majority of countries voted for a ceasefire, MSF teams have witnessed first-hand new horrors in this crisis. In January. On January 6, MSF teams were forced to evacuate Al-Aqsa Hospital, in Gaza’s middle zone, after Israeli forces dropped leaflets with evacuation orders in neighborhoods near the hospital. . Once again, medical staff were faced with an impossible and devastating ultimatum: be killed in an airstrike or leave behind patients who are unable to leave.
Meanwhile, half of the displaced people in southern Gaza face appalling conditions: inadequate shelter, food, water, medicine and other basic necessities. And in January. On September 9, another unimaginable loss for our Palestinian colleagues: the five-year-old daughter of an MSF staff member was killed after a shell, resembling that of a tank, passed through the wall of the building where found more than 100 MSF staff members and their families. were looking for safety and shelter.
In MSF’s first open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, we asked: “How many more colleagues, health workers and civilians must we mourn before the international community acts to protect them?” Since sending this letter, three more MSF colleagues have been killed, more hospitals have been destroyed and countless civilians have lost their lives in the bloodshed.
This must stop now.
Canada must help make the immediate ceasefire a reality
Canada has repeatedly spoken out in favor of a ceasefire, including during the UNGA vote and subsequent statements. The Canadian government must now translate these words into action.
This includes leveraging his influence as co-chair of the Group of Friends of UN Security Council Resolution 2286 to push Israel to stop bombing hospitals, ambulances and other health infrastructure in Gaza. MSF and other organizations have advocated for Canada to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. It is now done.
We now urge the Canadian government to have the moral courage to exert all its influence to make an immediate ceasefire a reality.
I call on the Canadian government to have the moral courage to exercise all its influence to make an immediate #ceasefire a reality.
@MSF_Canada
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