1. United States
2. Colo.
3. Letter

For more than 21 months, the Israeli authorities have deliberately inflicted conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza. Israel’s actions, omissions, and policies have brought Gaza’s population to the brink of collapse. The government of Israel has imposed conditions of life in Gaza that created a deadly mixture of malnutrition, hunger, and diseases, and has exposed Palestinians to a slow, calculated death. For over two months, Israel completely cut off the supply of humanitarian aid and other items indispensable to the survival of civilians in a clear and calculated effort to collectively punish over two million civilians and to make the occupied Gaza Strip unlivable. This constitutes a blatant form of unlawful collective punishment, the war crime of using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, and an act of genocide. Further, efforts to control and militarize humanitarian aid distribution also undermine the independent and impartial delivery of essential assistance to a population in dire need. Any attempts to weaponize humanitarian aid, use it to coerce forced displacement, or establish discriminatory aid distribution zones would violate international law and must be rejected. Finally, Israel’s March 9 decision to cut power to Gaza’s main desalination plant has further crippled access to clean water. The plant was the only facility in Gaza reconnected to Israel’s electricity grid in November 2024, after a full electricity blackout had been imposed since 11 October 2023. Congress Must Urgently Co-Sponsor H.R. 3565