H.E. Ambassador Cristiano Maggipinto
Embassy of Italy

Subject: Urgent Appeal to Provide Protected Aid Convoys to Gaza

Dear Ambassador Maggipinto,

I write to you with the utmost concern about the escalation of the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip and the obligation and opportunity of Italy to take immediate and effective measures to prevent it becoming even worse.

More than two million people are actively targeted by Israel for starvation, bombing and ethnic cleansing.

Israel occupies most of Gaza.  It bombs the rest of the region with scarcely believable increasing ferocity every day after what soon will be two years of attack.

Israeli troops are playing literal Squid Games ‘green-light’ – ‘red-light’ shooting at desperate and starving Palestinians in the four so called ‘feeding stations’ run by Israel and the US in Gaza.

People are starving to death in increasing numbers. Many thousands more will inevitably die in a famine from the consequences of a blockade which began when Israel abrogated its ceasefire deal in March.

While the official direct death toll is 60,000, the actual number of those killed as a result of the Israeli attacks has been calculated to be more likely in the region of 280,000.

Israeli Defence Minister Katz is openly forcing the remaining Gaza population into Rafah.  This is not an accusation – it is policy.  It is a war crime.

A long delayed long-term permanent solution through the achievement of Palestinian rights has never been more vital in the 76 years of their denial.

But urgent action to feed starving people is also vital.

The Special Rapporteur for the oPt, Francesca Albanese has called for countries, which share of a common border with Gaza around the Mediterranean, to urgently send protected convoys to Gaza.

This could be expanded and reinforced by a mandate from a Uniting for Peace Resolution through an Emergency Special Session of the UN General Assembly to maintain or restore international peace and security.

This would not be a token action, such as the 2024 disastrous RAF parachute aid drops or the US floating pier which only lasted one week.

This could be a genuine lifting of the Israeli blockade. 

Of course, Israel would not willingly permit it. 

But Israel has neither the moral nor legal backing to prevent it.

Italy is a party to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and is thus obligated to prevent and punish actions of genocide.

Italy is also a State Party to the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and the Additional Protocols I and II.  These instruments mandate Italy to take steps to ensure international compliance with the GCIV.

This is not the time for further acquiescence to Israeli genocide.  It is the time for concerted action and Italy to take a leadership role in materially assisting in alleviating a further catastrophe.

Maher Nazzal
Co-Chair PSNA
Co-Chair1@PSNA.nz