Gaza: Handicap International condemns use of explosive weapons in populated areas

London, 28th July 2014. Handicap International is outraged by the use of explosive weapons in the heavily populated areas of Gaza. The organisation is calling on the international community to put pressure on both parties to the conflict to arrange an immediate ceasefire and to provide victims with access to humanitarian aid.

Last week, international aid organisations met with the French President, François Hollande, and French Minister for Foreign Affairs, Laurent Fabius, to discuss the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Handicap International, represented by Jean-Pierre Delomier, director of the organisation’s Emergency Response Division, stressed the disastrous consequences of the mass use of explosive weapons in highly populated areas, which has accounted for most of the conflict’s victims to date. The organisation emphasized that the bombing of hospitals and other health services prevents injured and vulnerable people from accessing treatment, putting their lives at risk and making them more likely to develop permanent disabilities. Handicap International requested that everything possible be done to bring an immediate end to the fighting in order to prevent the death and injury of more civilians.

Co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for its campaign against anti-personnel mines, Handicap International is keen to point out that the use of explosive weapons in populated areas is contrary to international humanitarian law. Mass bombing is also leaving behind explosive remnants of war, which will pose a threat to civilian lives in the months or even years to come.

“Used in populated areas, explosive weapons kill and maim men, women and children indiscriminately. That’s unacceptable,” says Florence Daunis, Handicap International’s deputy executive director in charge of the organisation’s operations.

Under these disastrous circumstances, the most vulnerable people are put at an even greater disadvantage. Unable to move around, it is impossible for them to seek shelter or access humanitarian aid. Handicap International is therefore supporting diplomatic efforts to arrange a humanitarian truce to ensure the inhabitants of Gaza are able to access humanitarian aid and to demand protection for care facilities in order to shelter injured, sick and disabled people and healthcare staff from the violence.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, as of 27th July, 999 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict, including at least 760 civilians, of whom 226 are children. 46 Israelis, including two civilians, have also been killed. 6,233 Palestinians have been injured, including 1,949 children and 1,160 women. The United Nations has also reported incidents in which hospitals, health centres, schools and stocks of humanitarian aid have been destroyed.

Handicap International has been present in Gaza since 1996, providing support to disabled people’s organisations. Its teams have witnessed the toll taken by these attacks, the pressures felt by the population, which lives under the constant threat of explosions, and the trauma experienced by children living with daily violence. Although the number of injured people is rising every day, hospitals are having to cope with an acute shortage of equipment and medication.

Last week, Handicap International began to distribute equipment in hospitals (mobility aids for the injured). The organisation is hoping to set up a post-surgical care service over the next few days by providing in-home care to injured people in order to free-up space in hospitals. It is also planning to launch psychosocial support actions as soon as the security situation allows and is looking into the possibility of organising decontamination operations (search and destruction of explosive remnants of war) after the end of military operations.

Press contact
Tom Shelton
Email: tom.shelton@hi-uk.org
Mobile: 44 (0)7508 810 520
Tel: 44 (0)870 774 3737

About Handicap International
Co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Handicap International is an independent charity working in situations of poverty and exclusion, conflict and disaster. We work tirelessly alongside disabled and vulnerable people in over 60 countries worldwide. www.handicap-international.org.uk

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