10/29/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 10/29/2024 10:23
STATEMENT - 29 October 2024
By Dereje Wordofa
President, SOS Children's Villages International
Our work in Gaza and across the Occupied Palestinian Territory for years has shown that UNRWA's humanitarian assistance is an essential lifeline, providing critical services to children and families facing severe hardships.
The recent decision by Israel's Knesset to bar UNRWA from delivering these services threatens to sever this lifeline, cutting off vital resources that keep families alive and stable under extraordinarily harsh and inhumane conditions.
If implemented, this harsh measure will have devastating effects on children and refugees who have nowhere else to go. It will lead to more hardship, more lives lost, and more families torn apart.
I stand firmly with UNRWA in its mission and urge the international community and world leaders to demand a reversal of this decision to prevent further catastrophic humanitarian losses.
Abandoning these vulnerable children and their families living under the most vulnerable conditions to even greater risks not only violates the principles of the Humanitarian Charter, which include the right to receive humanitarian assistance, but also sets a harmful precedent worldwide-a profound failure to protect those most in need.