The Department of Social Sciences UP Los Baños condemns in its strongest terms the unjust and cruel war, now in its fifth month, being waged by Israel on the Gaza Strip. This Palestinian territory described as an “open-air prison”(1) has been put under a constant Israeli blockade since 2007 inhumanely restricting the entry of food and other important supplies for its two-million-people population.

Just a week ago, a heinous massacre was committed by the Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians. Reputable news sources report that more than 100 Palestinians were killed and about 750 were wounded after Israeli soldiers opened fire on the crowd gathering around a food aid convoy in the pre-dawn hours of February 29, 2024.(2)(3)(4) This occurred as the total death toll passed 30,000 since October last year.(5) In particular, as of February 12, 70 percent of those killed are women and children,(6) unprecedented in the history of the occupation of Palestine.

As social scientists, we are deeply outraged by the impunity enjoyed by Israel in its occupation of Palestinian lands since 1948 and we urgently call for justice for the senseless killings of Palestinian civilians. Thus we join the global calls in urging the United Nations (UN), the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and the entire international community to facilitate an immediate permanent ceasefire, the uninterrupted entry of humanitarian aid in Gaza, the prosecution of Israel’s genocidal war, and the ending of the occupation of Palestinian territories.

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