United Nations Radio

As diplomats at the UN try to resolve the ongoing crisis in Gaza, those dealing with the humanitarian crisis on the ground there, are calling for an immediate ceasefire.

Aid agencies call for a ceasefire in Gaza

The three-hour cessation of hostilities granted by Israel, Yazdan Al Amawi of the NGO Care say, while a much needed break to allow for some movement, is not enough.

YAZDIN: It's been quieter during the 3 hours, and the movement was a bit better than before. But still there were long queues of people waiting for bread at bakeries. Definitely, there (was) a noticeable where our office is located where people seized the moment in order to go to visit their families or some injured people at Shefa Hospital.

DIANE: Oxfam's Michael Bailey, also speaking to journalists in New York from Gaza, says it's important to remember that the current crisis comes after 19 months of a blockade by Israel, which saw 70,000 jobs disappear and the deterioration of agriculture.

BAILEY: The effect of that economic strangulation of Gaza is that unemployment is around 50% which is one of the highest unemployment levels in the world. Every family in Gaza is hit by poverty, 80% of families are dependent on food aid for part or all of their food. Some of the poorest families are spending three quarters of their income simply to feed themselves.

DIANE: Sara Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch in New York pointed out that under humanitarian law only combatants should be targeted.

WHITSON: So for example, a Hamas official at the Ministry of Health is not a legitimate target of attack, and a Hamas media broadcasting station is not a legitimate target of attack unless they're directly participating in hostilities.

DIANE: Police stations, too, Ms. Whitson said are also not legitimate targets under humanitarian law.

WHITSON: It's important to note that police are not legitimate targets, they're not combatants who are subject to legitimate attack unless they're actively engaged in hostilities, unless they've in a sense put aside their law enforcement duties, their traffic policing, their issuing warrants and whatnot, and instead are participating in the fighting. And it is Israel's burden of proof to show that the police they have targeted were actually not ordinary police but Hamas militants. Instead it appears that they just on a blanket basis treated all police stations as military targets, which they're not, presumptively.

DIANE: Michael Bailey insists that it's only an immediate and permanent ceasefire that will do more than just keeping people on what he calls" life support".

BAILEY: Blockading one and a half million people, cutting off their economy and restricting their electricity by not allowing any spare parts for repair or maintenance for 18 months, and restricting the supplies to the health service and to all other aspects of life even paper for school books and sports kits for children has weakened the population of Gaza to a significant extent before the current onslaught of this military action.

DIANE: Michael Bailey of Oxfam, one of the NGOs calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Producer:  Diane Bailey
(duration:  3'29")