The Taula d’entitats del Tercer Sector Social de Catalunya and the Plataforma d’Infància de Catalunya (PINCat) are calling on institutions and the international community to take concrete action to stop the massacre and ensure humanitarian aid reaches the Palestinian population.
The social outcry and indignation over the genocide that Israel is perpetrating against the Palestinian people are spreading like wildfire across Catalonia. Anger continues to grow as, day after day, more people raise their voices to express solidarity with Palestine, denounce the impunity of attacks on civilians, demand decisive measures to isolate Israel, and call for an end to the humanitarian massacre in Gaza.
A clear sign of this growing collective response were the massive demonstrations that filled the streets of cities such as Barcelona — where thousands of people gathered and more than six hundred organizations joined the call — as well as initiatives emerging from activism, like the Global Summud Flotilla, intercepted by the Israeli army before reaching Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid.
In this context, the Taula d’entitats del Tercer Sector Social de Catalunya and the Plataforma d’Infància de Catalunya (PINCat) have joined the condemnation of Israel’s actions through a joint statement denouncing “the continuous attacks against the Palestinian population” and demanding urgent measures from Catalan institutions, the Spanish government, and the European Union (EU) in the face of what they unambiguously describe as “an ongoing genocide.”
The Taula and PINCat call for sanctions and the severing of ties with Israel
In the statement, the Taula del Tercer Sector and PINCat, which represent more than three thousand organizations and the Catalan children’s movement, denounce “the ongoing attacks against the Palestinian population” and warn that the bombings and the humanitarian blockade have caused “the deaths of thousands of people, especially children.”
They do not hesitate to describe this as “a systematic violation of human rights and international law.” For this reason, they demand the immediate cessation of violence and the guaranteed safe and sufficient access of humanitarian aid.
The organizations also denounce that humanitarian aid has become a weapon of war and call for it to reach the civilian population without restrictions, as established by international humanitarian law. “Blocking food, water and medicine is a serious violation of international law,” they stress.
Both platforms call on international bodies to fulfill their obligations and to act “decisively and urgently in the face of the massacre.” They also urge the Spanish government and the European Union to suspend political, economic and military agreements with Israel, impose sanctions on its leaders and establish a total arms embargo.
As for Catalan institutions, they urge the Generalitat and local councils to break ties with companies or organizations that collaborate with the occupation and to review contracts and partnerships to ensure that they “do not contribute to the genocide.”
The statement concludes with a call to promote “a just and lasting peace” based on respect for human rights and international law. “There will be no peace until the genocide, the occupation, and the forced displacement of the Palestinian people come to an end,” the entities affirm, recalling that defending human rights and protecting children is a shared responsibility of society as a whole.
The devastation in Gaza and a questioned peace plan
Two years after Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023, the figures left by the conflict and the humanitarian crisis are devastating. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 67,000 people have been killed by Israel in the Gaza Strip since the start of the offensive.
In just 365 square kilometers, more than 21,000 attacks have been recorded — including airstrikes, artillery shelling, and drone attacks — that have razed entire cities and trapped the population in an ever-smaller, unlivable territory. International organizations estimate that 82% of Gaza is now restricted or evacuated territory, while the so-called safe zones continue to be targeted.
Adding to this devastation is an extreme mortality rate: between October 2023 and October 2024, Gaza and the West Bank recorded 812 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, a figure that triples that of the war in Ukraine.
As recently highlighted by a report from an independent UN commission, Israel is committing genocide in Gaza through an offensive aimed at “destroying the Palestinian people of the Strip as a group,” which experts say shows a clear and sustained genocidal intent. Altogether, it exposes an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, with a civilian population devastated, without resources, and subjected to constant violence that, as the international community has reiterated, flagrantly violates international humanitarian law.
At present, the situation of the conflict is marked by negotiations over a 20-point peace plan proposed by the United States and Israel, which envisions the immediate end of hostilities, the withdrawal of Israeli forces, the return of hostages, the reconstruction of Gaza, and the supervision of an international transitional government. However, voices from Palestine warn that the so-called peace plan lacks legitimacy and guarantees, having been designed solely by Trump and Netanyahu, without impartial mediation or Palestinian participation, and with no mechanism for justice for the more than 67,000 Gazans killed.
In this regard, figures such as Natàlia Abu Sharar, president of the Comunitat Palestina de Catalunya, have denounced the initiative as “yet another cover to continue the genocide” by Israel. “This agreement has been made without speaking to Palestinians, without taking their rights into account, and without including Palestine in the process,” she stated.
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