SAFA - The Hamas Movement on Wednesday called on the United Nations and international humanitarian organizations to step up efforts to address the humanitarian fallout of the Israeli genocidal war in the Gaza Strip, support the Palestinian people’s resilience, and work to criminalize Israeli actions and hold its leaders accountable for violations against civilians and humanitarian workers.

In a statement marking World Humanitarian Day, observed annually on August 19, the Movement said the occasion comes as Israeli aggression continues and violations against Palestinians escalate across the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank and occupied Jerusalem.

It noted that Israel has not only blocked aid and essential supplies from reaching civilians in Gaza but has also targeted humanitarian workers and staff members of relief organizations and associations, resulting in the deaths of dozens of them while carrying out their humanitarian duties.

It stressed that targeting humanitarian workers constitutes a “heinous war crime,” calling on the international community to assume its political, legal and moral responsibilities and to exert pressure on the Israeli authorities to halt its crimes and hold its leaders accountable.

The Movement called on the United Nations and humanitarian organizations worldwide to continue supporting the Palestinian people and take urgent action to save more than two million displaced people in the Gaza Strip amid the catastrophic humanitarian conditions in which they are living.

It also urged UN agencies and Arab, Islamic and international organizations to step up their humanitarian, healthcare, educational, relief and development programs in the Strip, and to press for the entry of temporary shelter units and weather-resistant tents, particularly as winter approaches.

Hamas commended the efforts of humanitarian teams inside and outside Palestine, as well as Arab, Islamic and international organizations, in supporting the resilience of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jerusalem, refugee camps and the Diaspora, and in providing humanitarian, healthcare, educational and relief services.

Hamas stressed that the Israeli continued violations of international values, norms and laws require serious international action, emphasizing that merely issuing statements of condemnation and denunciation “is no longer acceptable.”