Urgent Call for Intervention Regarding Evacuation of Protected Persons & Medical Cases in the Gaza Strip
Friday July 25 2014

We are writing to request your urgent intervention regarding evacuation of protected persons and medical cases in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli side – with whom PHR-IL has corresponded and held numerous phone calls – promises to ensure the evacuation of civilians and the wounded from fighting areas. However, we are faced with calls for help from civilians, some of whom are wounded, disabled or elderly, that are unanswered for days. Coordination is very difficult and in some areas non-existent or completely ineffective. This is confirmed to us by the aid workers on the ground.

Reasons vary – and it is currently impossible to understand why there are no mechanism of short ceasefires in specific areas so it will be made possible.

We urge you to assist us, and all other efforts and call Israel to:
mark a safe and secured passage with a specified area to go to from the area under fire.
create safe zones where the needs of civilians can be addressed
create time frames in which ambulances can enter without specific calls  from individuals – as there are so many who may be there without phones, batteries exhausted etc.

At the moment and in light of the hostile atmosphere to voices of Human Rights organizations and other NGO’s, we have no effective address among the Israeli authoritiesand lives are being lost. An utmost effort should be made to allow at least these measures, let alone to bring an end to the war which has already taken the lives of hundreds, wounded thousands and traumatized hundreds of thousands.

See a joint letter by human rights organizations:
http://www.phr.org.il/default.asp?PageID=190&ItemID=1982

For further details, and for convening an urgent meeting please contact me at 054-6623232 or hadas@phr.org.il

Sincerely and in hope for your prompt response

Hadas Ziv
Public Outreach
PHR-IL