Statement | Thursday 9th October 2025

For two years, millions of Palestinians in Gaza have been starved, shot, bombed, and displaced by Israel in its genocidal campaign. Those who have sought to help — humanitarians, journalists, and doctors — have themselves been villainised and victimised.

The systematic targeting of civilians and the deliberate obstruction of aid have created one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent memory and have driven a genocide against the Palestinian people.

And while we welcome this opportunity to finally access communities and ease the immediate suffering of the 2.1 million Palestinians, we cannot allow this to be a return to the status quo of blockade, deprivation, and impunity. As a humanitarian agency, our mission is to protect life and dignity. We stand ready and able to ramp up our humanitarian provision: our trucks are at the border and our teams are on the ground. But humanitarian access alone cannot end this suffering.

For this ceasefire to transform into long-term peace and stability, principled aid must be allowed to flow immediately and at scale to those who need it most. It must also mark the start of genuine accountability and justice for the unprecedented atrocities committed since October 2023.

Israel’s continued bombardment in the hours preceding the ceasefire exposes a blatant disregard for Palestinian life and international law, and further underlines the urgent need for genuine accountability, sustained international pressure, and concrete action to end Israel’s occupation and system of apartheid, which continues to enable mass human rights abuses in the West Bank.

Palestinians should not be passive recipients of international decisions, but active participants in shaping their own future, governance, and recovery. True peace will only come when the rights, safety, and humanity of Palestinians are fully recognised and protected — not temporarily, but permanently.