This manifesto is not a plea. It's a cry. It's a fist on the table of indifference. It's an urgent call to the world's conscience.
Today, the undersigned organizations—the National Committees for UNICEF and UNRWA in Spain, Oxfam Intermón, Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children, and the Movement for Peace (MPDL)—raise our voices as one. We raise them because the suffering of the Palestinian population is unbearable. We raise them because in Gaza, with each passing day, something essential to our humanity crumbles.
We address governments, political leaders, international institutions, the media, civil society organizations, and, above all, all those who have not yet relinquished their conscience or their capacity for outrage at the barbaric acts the current Israeli government and army are committing in Gaza.
In less than two years, more than 56,000 people have been killed, more than 18,000 of them children. More than 127,000 have been injured, many with amputations, burns, mutilations, and traumas that cannot be healed. After the Hamas attacks, which killed 1,200 people and took around 250 hostage on October 7, 2023, Gaza has become the scene of the most heartbreaking human suffering of our time. It has become a brutal symbol of pain.
The mental impact is indescribable; children tell us of total hopelessness about the future. And we're still searching for words that can truly describe this hell, because language no longer suffices to describe such pain.
Virtually the entire population of Gaza lives displaced and besieged, without a safe place to seek refuge. More than half are children. As a result of the total siege imposed by the Israeli authorities on March 2, 100% of Gaza is now at risk of famine, according to the United Nations. More than half a million people are in Stage 5 of catastrophic famine, dozens have already died, and more will die if the Israeli government does not allow the entry of massive humanitarian aid.
The special protection and assistance granted to children by international humanitarian law—and which constitute a legal obligation for parties to the conflict—have not been fulfilled. Killed or maimed, surrounded by hunger and fear, children are being disproportionately affected by this conflict. More than 41,000 have lost one or both parents. The impact is so profound that a new term has been coined to describe those who have survived. “injured children, with no surviving family members.”
Attacks against civilians, the destruction of essential infrastructure, the systematic obstruction of humanitarian action, the deprivation of food and water, and forced displacement constitute serious violations of international humanitarian law.
The health system has collapsed. At least 941 hospitals in the Gaza Strip have been damaged or destroyed. Medical care is being systematically attacked throughout Gaza. Those who survive the bombing are dying due to lack of basic care. Medical humanitarian teams are being forced to treat wounds without painkillers and ration essential medicines. Operating rooms have had to operate without electricity.
Adding to this devastation is an aid model imposed by the Israeli government that excludes humanitarian principles, United Nations agencies, and major international humanitarian organizations. A model that, far from alleviating suffering, perpetuates it. It fragments, conditions, and politicizes assistance, violating the fundamental principles of neutrality, impartiality, and independence. This is not a humanitarian aid system; it is the militarization of aid to a starving population. It facilitates forced displacement, blocks vital relief, and consolidates collective punishment as a weapon of subjugation. In recent days, more than 500 people have been killed and more than 4,000 have been wounded at militarized aid posts as a result of Israeli army fire.
Meanwhile, tons of food, medicine, and medical supplies remain trapped on the other side of the border, just a few kilometers from those who desperately need them.
We cannot allow this indifference and complicity to become the norm. We cannot accept that European and world leaders stand by silently as an entire population vanishes beneath bombs, rubble, starvation, and neglect.
This manifesto is not a plea.
It's a scream.
It is a fist on the table of indifference.
It is an urgent call to the conscience of the world.
And with every child killed, with every mother who cries helplessly, with every family buried under the rubble, something of us also disappears. In the future, we won't be able to say we didn't see it coming. Protection is a right and a legal obligation that must be guaranteed by all parties, including the international community.
How much more does a people have to suffer to awaken international action?
How many more children must die before those in power take action?
Words are no longer enough. Condemnations without consequences don't save lives. Declarations without concrete measures fade away. History will judge not what we said, but what we did. Or didn't do.
We call on the Israeli authorities to immediately cease the collective punishment of Palestinians and end their inhumane siege of Gaza. We also demand that the Government of Israel fulfill its responsibilities as the occupying power and that its authorities facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza on a large scale.
We demand that Spain, European leaders, and states allied to the Government of Israel exercise their influence to achieve:
1. An immediate and definitive ceasefire.
2. The effective protection of the civilian population, in accordance with International Humanitarian Law
3. The full and sustained opening of all border crossings to guarantee the massive entry of humanitarian aid, without political conditions.
4. Respect and full restoration of the mandate of UNRWA and all humanitarian agencies, without criminalization or political obstruction.
5. The suspension of collective punishments as weapons of war, such as the use of starvation and forced displacement.