{"id":59734,"date":"2025-07-23T14:10:45","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T19:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/?p=59734"},"modified":"2025-07-23T14:10:47","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T19:10:47","slug":"joint-statement-as-mass-starvation-spreads-across-gaza-our-colleagues-and-those-we-serve-are-wasting-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/joint-statement-as-mass-starvation-spreads-across-gaza-our-colleagues-and-those-we-serve-are-wasting-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Joint Statement:\u00a0As Mass Starvation Spreads Across Gaza, Our Colleagues and Those We Serve Are Wasting Away"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) – of which the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and United Church of Christ are members – has joined more than 100 humanitarian and human rights organizations in sounding the alarm over the catastrophic starvation crisis in Gaza. As part of this joint statement, CMEP urges governments to take immediate and decisive action to end Israel\u2019s siege, open all land crossings, restore the full flow of essential aid, and demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire. \u201cThe deliberate starvation of civilians as a weapon of war is unconscionable and a moral outrage,\u201d said Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon, executive director of CMEP. \u201cWe call on the international community to act now to save lives before there are none left to save.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Find the full statement below:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Israeli government\u2019s siege starves the people of Gaza, aid workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families. With supplies now totally depleted, humanitarian organisations are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exactly two months since the Israeli government-controlled scheme, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, began operating, more than 100 organisations are sounding the alarm, urging governments to act: open all land crossings; restore the full flow of food, clean water, medical supplies, shelter items, and fuel through a principled, UN-led mechanism; end the siege, and agree to a ceasefire now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEach morning, the same question echoes across Gaza: will I eat today?\u201d said one agency representative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Massacres at food distribution sites in Gaza are occurring near-daily. As of July 13, the UN <\/a>confirmed<\/a> 875 Palestinians were killed while seeking food, 201 on aid routes and the rest at distribution points. Thousands more have been injured. Meanwhile, Israeli forces have forcibly displaced nearly two million exhausted Palestinians<\/a> with the most recent mass <\/a>displacement <\/a>order issued on July<\/a> 20, confining Palestinians to less than <\/a>12 per <\/a>cent <\/a>of Gaza. <\/a>WFP<\/a> warns that current conditions make operations untenable. The starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is a war crime.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just outside Gaza, in warehouses – and even within Gaza itself – tons of food, clean water, medical supplies, shelter items and fuel sit untouched with humanitarian organisations blocked from accessing or delivering them. The Government of Israel\u2019s restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death. An aid worker providing psychosocial support spoke of the devastating impact on children: \u201cChildren tell their parents they want to go to heaven, because at least heaven has food.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doctors <\/a>report<\/a> record rates of <\/a>acute malnutrition<\/a>, especially among children and older people. Illnesses like acute watery diarrhoea are spreading, markets are empty, waste is piling up, and adults are collapsing on the streets from hunger and dehydration. Distributions in Gaza average just 28 trucks a day, far from enough for over two million people, many of whom have gone weeks without assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UN-led humanitarian system has not failed, it has been prevented from functioning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Humanitarian agencies have the capacity and supplies to respond at scale. But, with access denied, we are blocked from reaching those in need, including our own exhausted and starved teams. On July 10, the EU and Israel <\/a>announced<\/a> steps to scale up aid. But these promises of \u2018progress\u2019 ring hollow when there is no real change on the ground. Every day without a sustained flow means more people dying of preventable illnesses. Children starve while waiting for promises that never arrive.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palestinians are trapped in a cycle of hope and heartbreak, waiting for assistance and ceasefires, only to wake up to worsening conditions. It is not just physical torment, but psychological. Survival is dangled like a mirage. The humanitarian system cannot run on false promises. Humanitarians cannot operate on shifting timelines or wait for political commitments that fail to deliver access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Governments must stop waiting for permission to act. We cannot continue to hope that current arrangements will work. It is time to take decisive action: demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire; lift all bureaucratic and administrative restrictions; open all land crossings; ensure access to everyone in all of Gaza; reject military-controlled distribution models; restore a principled, UN-led humanitarian response and continue to fund principled and impartial humanitarian organisations. States must pursue concrete measures to end the siege, such as halting the transfer of weapons and ammunition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Piecemeal arrangements and symbolic gestures, like airdrops or flawed aid deals, serve as a smokescreen for inaction. They cannot replace states\u2019 legal and moral obligations to protect Palestinian civilians and ensure meaningful access at scale. States can and must save lives before there are none left to save.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here for a full list of signing organizations.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) – of which the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and United Church of Christ are members – has joined more than 100 humanitarian and human rights organizations in sounding the alarm over the catastrophic … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20176,"featured_media":41986,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false},"categories":[],"topic":[20450,20306],"region":[20025,20022],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nJoint Statement:\u00a0As Mass Starvation Spreads Across Gaza, Our Colleagues and Those We Serve Are Wasting Away - Global Ministries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/joint-statement-as-mass-starvation-spreads-across-gaza-our-colleagues-and-those-we-serve-are-wasting-away\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Joint Statement:\u00a0As Mass Starvation Spreads Across Gaza, Our Colleagues and Those We Serve Are Wasting Away - Global Ministries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) – of which the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and United Church of Christ are members – has joined more than 100 humanitarian and human rights organizations in sounding the alarm over the catastrophic … Read more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/joint-statement-as-mass-starvation-spreads-across-gaza-our-colleagues-and-those-we-serve-are-wasting-away\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Global Ministries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-23T19:10:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-23T19:10:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/CMEPHeader.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1154\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"255\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Middle East and Europe\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@MidEastEuropeGM\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Middle East and Europe\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/joint-statement-as-mass-starvation-spreads-across-gaza-our-colleagues-and-those-we-serve-are-wasting-away\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/joint-statement-as-mass-starvation-spreads-across-gaza-our-colleagues-and-those-we-serve-are-wasting-away\/\",\"name\":\"Joint Statement:\u00a0As Mass Starvation Spreads Across Gaza, Our Colleagues and Those We Serve Are Wasting Away - Global Ministries\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-23T19:10:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-23T19:10:47+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/#\/schema\/person\/4b18b6cf8489c64f6ea75a366861d9ac\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/joint-statement-as-mass-starvation-spreads-across-gaza-our-colleagues-and-those-we-serve-are-wasting-away\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/joint-statement-as-mass-starvation-spreads-across-gaza-our-colleagues-and-those-we-serve-are-wasting-away\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/joint-statement-as-mass-starvation-spreads-across-gaza-our-colleagues-and-those-we-serve-are-wasting-away\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Joint Statement:\u00a0As Mass Starvation Spreads Across Gaza, Our Colleagues and Those We Serve Are Wasting Away\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/\",\"name\":\"Global Ministries\",\"description\":\"Global Ministries is a common missional witness of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ. Global Ministries works with approximately 290 faith-based international partners in close to 90 countries. Our Vision: That all of God\u2019s people and creation share in God\u2019s abundant life. Our Mission: To receive and share the Good News of Jesus Christ by joining with global and local partners to work for justice, reconciliation, and peace.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/#\/schema\/person\/4b18b6cf8489c64f6ea75a366861d9ac\",\"name\":\"Middle East and Europe\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/84cb7ef34bb9e42641643b8ae527523e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/84cb7ef34bb9e42641643b8ae527523e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Middle East and Europe\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MidEastEuropeGM\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/author\/pemakari\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Joint Statement:\u00a0As Mass Starvation Spreads Across Gaza, Our Colleagues and Those We Serve Are Wasting Away - Global Ministries","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/joint-statement-as-mass-starvation-spreads-across-gaza-our-colleagues-and-those-we-serve-are-wasting-away\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Joint Statement:\u00a0As Mass Starvation Spreads Across Gaza, Our Colleagues and Those We Serve Are Wasting Away - Global Ministries","og_description":"Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) – of which the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and United Church of Christ are members – has joined more than 100 humanitarian and human rights organizations in sounding the alarm over the catastrophic … Read more","og_url":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/joint-statement-as-mass-starvation-spreads-across-gaza-our-colleagues-and-those-we-serve-are-wasting-away\/","og_site_name":"Global Ministries","article_published_time":"2025-07-23T19:10:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-07-23T19:10:47+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1154,"height":255,"url":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/CMEPHeader.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Middle East and Europe","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@MidEastEuropeGM","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Middle East and Europe","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/joint-statement-as-mass-starvation-spreads-across-gaza-our-colleagues-and-those-we-serve-are-wasting-away\/","url":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/joint-statement-as-mass-starvation-spreads-across-gaza-our-colleagues-and-those-we-serve-are-wasting-away\/","name":"Joint Statement:\u00a0As Mass Starvation Spreads Across Gaza, Our Colleagues and Those We Serve Are Wasting Away - Global Ministries","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-07-23T19:10:45+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-23T19:10:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/#\/schema\/person\/4b18b6cf8489c64f6ea75a366861d9ac"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/joint-statement-as-mass-starvation-spreads-across-gaza-our-colleagues-and-those-we-serve-are-wasting-away\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/joint-statement-as-mass-starvation-spreads-across-gaza-our-colleagues-and-those-we-serve-are-wasting-away\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/joint-statement-as-mass-starvation-spreads-across-gaza-our-colleagues-and-those-we-serve-are-wasting-away\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Joint Statement:\u00a0As Mass Starvation Spreads Across Gaza, Our Colleagues and Those We Serve Are Wasting Away"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/","name":"Global Ministries","description":"Global Ministries is a common missional witness of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ. Global Ministries works with approximately 290 faith-based international partners in close to 90 countries. Our Vision: That all of God\u2019s people and creation share in God\u2019s abundant life. Our Mission: To receive and share the Good News of Jesus Christ by joining with global and local partners to work for justice, reconciliation, and peace.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/#\/schema\/person\/4b18b6cf8489c64f6ea75a366861d9ac","name":"Middle East and Europe","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/84cb7ef34bb9e42641643b8ae527523e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/84cb7ef34bb9e42641643b8ae527523e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Middle East and Europe"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/MidEastEuropeGM"],"url":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/author\/pemakari\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59734"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59734"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59736,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59734\/revisions\/59736"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59734"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=59734"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=59734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}