The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Thursday broke with its tradition of keeping silent about developments in its zones of operation to call for immediate international political action to end the “deep crisis” in the West Bank and Gaza.

The ICRC said Israel’s security measures had denied the Palestinian population the right to live a normal and dignified life. Although the ICRC and other international charitable bodies are pouring millions of dollars worth of aid into the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, the ICRC dismissed humanitarian assistance as a means to provide for the 3.7 million Palestinians living there.

“Why do we call for political action? Because actually we do not think that humanitarian aid can solve the problem,” stated Beatrice Megevand Roggo, ICRC director of operations for the Middle East.

“In Gaza, the whole Strip is being strangled, economically speaking, life there has become a nightmare. And for that there is no solution that can be provided by humanitarian organisations...We can try to put patches on problems, but we do not have the key to a lasting solution that would address the roots of the problem.”

Some donors suggest they could be perpetuating a deteriorating situation while others argue Israel, as the occupying power, should be held responsible for the welfare of the people who live under its occupation.

To illustrate why it is calling for political action, the ICRC has issued a brochure entitled Dignity Denied which paints a horrific picture of the suffering of the Palestinians under an economic blockade which deprives them freedom of movement, employment, medical care, and food.

The ICRC recognises Israel’s right to self-defence. “(But this)  needs to be balanced against the Palestinians’ right to live a normal and dignified life,” stated Roggo.

The ICRC said Palestinians are “trapped in the Gaza Strip” and are provided with “enough to survive but not enough to live.” Those in the West Bank face “shrinking agricultural production, crumbling infrastructure, harassment by Israeli settlers, and denial of access to their land and to public roads.

Bolstering the stand of the ICRC, the World Bank said new injections of aid and Palestinian administrative reforms will have no real effect unless  Israel lifts restrictions on travel and trade in the West Bank and ends its siege and blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Nearly 70 countries are expected to attend a donors’ conference in Paris on Monday where they will be asked to provide the Palestinians $5.6bn over the next three years. But the European Union, which has donated the most to the Palestinian Authority in the past decade, and the Arabs, who give fitfully, are unlikely to agree to major financial aid unless Israel halts military incursions into Palestinian areas which destroy donor-funded infrastructure and ends punitive restrictions.