Physician urges action to break Gaza siege, says civilians taking risks as governments fail

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

GENEVA (AA) - A pediatric intensive care physician and co-founder of the social media platform Gaza Medic Voices on Tuesday called for urgent international action to end the siege on Gaza, saying civilians have been left to do what governments have failed to accomplish, referring to the aid vessel Madleen and Tunisia bus convoy.

"We need to collectively break the siege, whatever that looks like," Tanya Haj-Hassan told an Association of Accredited Correspondents at the United Nations (ACANU) media briefing in Geneva. "We have individuals that are so fed up right now that they're riding large convoys across countries in buses to try and break the siege. These are civilians because governments aren't doing their job."

Her comments follow the interception of a humanitarian flotilla that attempted to deliver aid to Gaza. The boat was stopped before entering Israeli waters.

"We have a boat that was yesterday, a flotilla that was intercepted, and everyone on it again, trying to break the siege again from the Gaza border, not even entering Israel, was intercepted and arrested or deported, unarmed and carrying aid. This is frightening," Haj-Hassan said.

She criticized the international community for its inaction in the face of what she described as clear and urgent needs.

"There's so many levels of what needs to happen that's not happening, from peacekeeping forces to arms embargo to breaking the siege -- none of these things are happening," she said.

Calling for an unambiguous global stance, she added: "At the very start, we need to be very, very clear with our words. There needs to be widespread condemnation, action, and then accountability, and we're seeing none of those things. Maybe a little bit of a shift in the way people are speaking about things in the last two weeks. But that's not enough."

Emphasizing the importance of public pressure and mass mobilization, Haj-Hassan said: "I think there's always power in numbers. I think if it wasn't a Freedom Flotilla, if it was 2,000 freedom flotillas, it would have been a very different outcome."

Gaza Medic Voices, which Haj-Hassan co-founded, is administered by an international team of medics and surgeons who have all worked in or visited Gaza.

The Madleen, part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, was seized by Israeli naval forces early Monday morning in international waters. The boat was carrying supplies, including baby formula and medical materials.

It had 12 crew on board, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, French-Palestinian Member of the European Parliament Rima Hassan, and Turkish activist Suayb Ordu.

Its interception has drawn widespread criticism from national governments and organizations such as Amnesty International.