[Your address]
[Date]

[Your MP’s name]
House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA

Dear [your MP’s name] MP
I am writing to you to express my concern at the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.

Though the world knows the Gaza Strip is in crisis, nothing is being done.

• 80% of Gazans are dependent on humanitarian aid to survive
• 47% of the population is food insecure
• Gazans face electrical blackouts for 12–16 hours every day
• 97% of water is not safe for consumption
• Over 31% of essential medicines are unavailable*

Nearly 2 million people live besieged in conditions the UN describes as a human dignity crisis. But this is not a natural disaster — it is a political choice to punish the Palestinian people; a decision made by Israel with the support of the governments of the US, UK and EU.

Three years ago this month, Israel ended its devastating military offensive on the Gaza Strip, which killed 2,251 Palestinians, including 551 children.* A further 11,000 were injured, leaving many people, including around a thousand children, with life-altering disabilities.

The 50-day long 'Operation Protective Edge' all but obliterated Gaza’s infrastructure and left communities devastated. To deliberately incarcerate people in their own land, refuse them the right to travel and trade and deprive them of all but the essential means of survival is a clear breach of international law. Such behaviour is not acceptable for modern democracies.

The UN warned that Gaza will be uninhabitable by 2020 unless the blockade is lifted.*

More aid, medicine, electricity and clean water would be a welcome relief to many, but it is hypocritical to cause the problem and then pretend to assist by partially alleviating the situation we have created. Israel controls Gaza by land, air and sea; effectively sealing it off from the world. The only solution is to eliminate the causes — to end the 50-year occupation and the 10-year siege of Gaza.

Please raise the following issues with the Foreign Secretary and ask that the UK Government — as a signatory to the Fourth Geneva Convention, acts immediately to bring an end to the man-made crisis in Gaza through:

• calling for the immediate lifting of the blockade of Gaza and allowing of imports and exports
• abiding by our obligations under international law to demand the end of the siege and the removal by Israel of all obstacles to the exercise of human rights by Palestinians in Gaza, including the rig ht to travel and trade
• fulfilling our responsibilities under international law and human rights obligations through putting appropriate diplomatic pressure on Israel — if necessary, using sanctions and other means by which to persuade them to end their blockade.

Yours sincerely,

[Your name]

* Statistics taken from:
– UNRWA report 05/07/2016
– OCHA reports 11/2016 & 23/06/2016
– PSC, 08/2017
– The Independent 19/08/2017
– Medical Aid for Palestine report 11/05/2017
– UN Conference on Trade and Development Report 01/09/2015