NEW YORK, July 12: An alliance of 11 Muslim organisations has urged the US president to condemn as “war crime” Israel’s continued targeting of the civilian population in Gaza that has killed scores of Palestinian men, women and children and injured thousands of others. “The international community must not allow the Israeli government to use this crisis to remove the democratically-elected Palestinian government, thus striking a devastating blow to the nascent democratic process in the region,” the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT) said in statement issued here on Wednesday.

At the United Nations Headquarters in New York on Tuesday, Jan Egeland, Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, called for greater access and protection for humanitarian workers so that they could help civilians in the besieged Gaza territory.

At a press briefing here, he said that they were constantly having access problems, which is in violation of international laws.

On the worsening situation in Gaza, he reiterated international calls on both sides to end the conflict.

The official said that Israel’s “excessive use of force” had disproportionately hurt the civilian population. He described Israel’s “surgical” bombing of Gaza’s only power plant as a disastrous act.

“With the electricity now gone, we have the downward spiral that we had predicted,” he said, adding that although Israel had allowed some fuel to go through, it was not enough to power hospitals and sanitation infrastructure permanently. The provided fuel was just enough to power backup generators for a few hours at a time and avoid the total breakdown of clean water and sewage systems, he added.

He said that they had appealed to the international community for an amount of $385 million for the occupied Palestinian territories but as of July 7, a total of $117 million - which is less than one-third or 31 per cent of the demanded sum - had been received. “So we need money; and as we need access, we need security [also],” he said.

Meanwhile, in its statement, the AMT said: “The Israeli army has been waging a full-fledged war against the Palestinian population, killing scores of civilian men, women and children. These crimes followed an unprecedented act of the kidnapping of dozens of democratically-elected Palestinian officials and cabinet ministers, including the deputy prime minister. Such acts are nothing short of state-terror.