Up to 90 percent of the aid that reaches Gaza is plundered, the article authors state. "Plundering of aid convoys is allowed and has become everyday life," they write.
The signatories are Jon Gunnarsson Ruthman, chairman of Doctors without Borders Sweden, together with the chief physician Märit Halmin at Södersjukhuset and Johan von Schreeb, professor of global disaster medicine at the Karolinska Institute.
They write that the food that Israel has allowed to be released to Gaza in mid-August only corresponds to one percent of the need.
Since mid-July, at least 16 children have died from hunger-related causes and over 20,000 children have been treated for acute malnutrition, according to Doctors without Borders and the UN.
What is needed is "immediate ceasefire, open borders for land transport and restoration of the UN's role in food distribution with a focus on women and children, as well as protection for civilians and humanitarian personnel. Starving civilians is a war crime. Passively accepting it is not just a moral betrayal - it is consent that makes us all accomplices," the text states.
