Yesterday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called for an immediate end to the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
In response, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) released a statement expressing its shock by what it called the one-sided statement by the High Commissioner.
Al Mezan condemns the Israeli MFAs' assertion which attempts to validate gross violations of human rights and humanitarian law while the welfare and wellbeing of 1.
5 million people in Gaza deteriorate so rapidly.
The High Commissioner's statement came after mounting reports about the human rights and humanitarian impacts of the Israeli siege.
Israel has been enforcing this siege for many years, but particularly intensified recently.
During the past fourteen days, food, medical and fuel supplies have been suspended under a decision by the Israeli Minister of Defense.
Israel portrays the siege as an unavoidable response to mortar and rocket attacks on Israeli towns and military posts_en in Gaza's vicinity.
As a human rights organization based in the Gaza Strip, Al Mezan has been monitoring the situation with much concern.
Facts on the ground indicate that the policy of siege dominates Israel's policies towards Gaza for many years.
The siege had been imposed years before the first home-made rockets were fired towards Israel.
In addition, the siege had been in place during the past five months; even when a truce was agreed between military groups in Gaza and Israel.
Israeli officials have frequently set the record by asserting that the policy of siege aimed to pressurize the population to bring about political gains.
During the past four years, the supplies Israel allowed into Gaza failed to meet the minimum needs of the population.
This policy created a constant state of vulnerability and practically destroyed the economy and infrastructure.
The humanitarian impacts have been dire, with a level of unemployment revolving around 35-40% and of poverty around 80%.
Industry and construction have been halted, and agriculture is seriously affected.
Today, the siege causes shortages in electricity and fuel supply.
It severely affects the local authorities' ability to pump water to neighborhoods.
It also affects the education and health sector in more than one way.
Public health remains a source of much concern as the local authorities' ability to deal with sewage water is undermined by the lack of power and equipment.
Additionally, the lack of grains and power affects the work of bakeries.
The situation on the ground is getting worse every hour.
Humanitarian agencies, including UNRWA, had to halt their operations because of the siege.
This reality of human misery in Gaza is not the result of unavoidable conditions.
On the contrary, it is the direct outcome of policies that are designed to bring this type of effect and suffering for Gaza's population.
Security concerns cannot justify contempt or disregard of international law.
Israel has an obligation to ensure that its forces act in conformity with its outstanding obligations under international law.
In particular, it must not resort to measures that are absolutely prohibited by international law, such as imposing a long-term siege on a 1.
5 million population; the vast majority of whom have no hand in, or effect on, the ongoing conflict.
It is incumbent on Israel to show that its responses are strictly militarily necessary, proportionate and distinct to avoid unnecessary harm for civilians.
The High Commissioner's statement, rightly, reminds Israel of the legal obligations it owes to the international community as well as the population of Gaza, which remains under Israeli effective control.
Allowing 33 trucks of humanitarian assistance into Gaza in 14 days, as referred to by the MFA, cannot mount to the slightest fraction of Gaza population's needs.
As the siege continues, Al Mezan and other human rights actors in the region and the world remain alarmed by both its consequences and Israel's distorted rationale behind enforcing it.
The conditions of conflict and emergency are the very times when human rights and humanitarian standards are most needed.
Sacrificing these standards must not be tolerated for it is this type of tolerance that paved the way for grave breaches of international law to be committed with complicit silence.
Al Mezan Center welcomes the High Commissioner's statement which is in full conformity with the standards she is entrusted to promote in the world.
The Center calls on the international community to take a clearer, more effective position against the policy of collective punishment of Gaza.
As the experience of the past few years shows, the partial, selective and sporadic interventions by the international community have proved futile and incapable of restoring the dignity and human rights of a population that lives under occupation.
Al Mezan remains highly concerned with the language used by the Israel MFA, which reflects a clear intention to maintain enforcing, and probably intensifying, policies that contradict non-derogable international standards.
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