DeLauro Statement on Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03), issued the following statement regarding the humanitarian crisis in Gaza:

“More than 100 aid agencies and rights groups, including Mercy Corps, Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children, and Oxfam, have warned about mass starvation currently taking place in Gaza. The last remaining pediatric ward treating child hunger in Gaza closed this last month, unable to find enough food and medical supplies. And the new, chaotic aid distribution system designed by Israel’s government and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has resulted in the Israeli armed forces shooting hundreds of Palestinians seeking food, just over the past few weeks.

As a result of the Israeli military’s continued attacks on Gaza, and the near-total blockade of food, fuel, medicine, and other humanitarian supplies that Israel has imposed since March 2, the death toll in Gaza has exceeded 60,000 people, and even that is likely a significant undercount. 

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is a private, unaccountable organization, employing armed mercenaries and operating in direct opposition to norms and principles of international law around humanitarian aid distribution that have been in place since the ratification of the Geneva Conventions in 1949. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has received $30 million from the State Department, and has been exempted from a comprehensive audit usually required for first-time grant recipients working in Gaza. Contractors with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation have been documented using pepper spray, stun grenades, and live ammunition at nearly every aid distribution, and civilians have reported being fired at by tanks, drones, and helicopters in addition to soldiers on the ground. So far, over 700 starving people have been killed and nearly 5,000 injured while seeking food at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites.

I have been calling for additional humanitarian aid surges into Gaza, and a stable ceasefire to enable negotiations and the return of hostages for over a year and half. On October 31 of 2023, less than a month after the October 7 attacks, I first called for a humanitarian pause to enable delivery of aid, and I have visited Israel multiple times since then to speak directly to Israeli government officials about the necessity of humanitarian aid delivery. I have condemned Israel’s efforts to defund and undermine UNWRA, the primary relief agency assisting Palestinians, and I fought to ensure that more than $9 billion for global humanitarian needs, including Gaza, was included in the national security supplemental spending bill passed in April of 2024. 

The recent steps Israel has taken to allow a marginal amount of additional aid, through convoys and air drops, are a start, but they are nowhere near enough. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert wrote that the Israeli government is committing war crimes. Prime Minister Netanyahu has claimed that there is no starvation in Gaza. That is wrong. 

Netanyahu cannot distort what the entire world sees clearly. He must let the aid flow.”