Refugees International

Activities

• In March 2024, Refugees International published a report titled “Siege and Starvation: How Israel Obstructs Aid to Gaza,” which claimed that Israeli policies are responsible for a “man-made humanitarian crisis” and that the conduct of Israel’s military response “has wrought disproportionate death and suffering among civilians in Gaza, generating famine-like conditions while obstructing and undermining the humanitarian response.”
• In March 2024, Refugees International was a signatory on a letter to President Biden calling for an arms embargo against Israel, alleging that “The Israeli government is committing a war crime by using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare.”
• In April 2024, Refugees International hosted a virtual event – “Stop Gaza’s Famine,” on the “conditions in Gaza, the imminent famine, and how to reverse course before more people lose their lives in this man-made disaster.”  
• In May 2024, Refugee International released a statement titled “Mass Displacement in Gaza Reaches Unconscionable Levels.” 
• In August 2024, Refugees International released a statement titled “Israel’s Forced Displacement of Palestinians in Gaza ‘Humanitarian Zone’” Threatens Collapse of Aid Response.” 
• In September 2024, Refugees International published a report titled “Untangling the Reality of Famine in Gaza” alleging that the “ebbs and flows in hunger conditions are closely linked to Israeli government restrictions and concessions on aid access, and to the conduct of the Israeli military.”

Staff 

• Jeremy Konyndyk- President
  • Konyndyk previously served in the Biden administration as USAID’s lead official for COVID-19 and in Obama administrations as the director of USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance.
  • In March 2024, Konydyk and Lang (see below) published an article in Foreign Affairs titled “The Looming Famine in Gaza And How to Stop It,” alleging that “the wartime conduct of the Israeli government is both accelerating Gaza’s descent toward mass hunger and obstructing the deployment of the resources necessary to prevent it.”
  • In April 2024, Konyndyk participated in a virtual media briefing, “Addressing the Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza”. 
  • In September 2024, Konyndyk and World Peace Foundation’s Alex De Waal co-authored an article titled “The Deep Imprints of Gaza’s Humanitarian Catastrophe,” claiming that the polio outbreak in Gaza was “a symptom of a health, food, and shelter catastrophe brought about by 11 months of relentless destruction of all that is necessary to sustain life in Gaza.”
• Hardin Lang- Vice President for Programs and Policy
  • Lang is a former UN Peacekeeping and humanitarian field operations officer who has worked in Gaza and the West Bank.
  • In March 2024, Lang tweeted, “This is the height of irresponsibility. With famine breaking out across the north of #Gaza, Israel moves to block further UNRWA food convoys to the area.”
  • In April 2024, Lang tweeted, “Some 200 aid workers have now been killed in #Gaza over the last six months. In my experience, this pace of targeting those engaged in humanitarian action is unprecedented.” 
  • In May 2024, Lang tweeted, “Let’s be clear:  If the IDF invades #Rafah, it will shut down humanitarian action in the south and likely destroy the aid infrastructure needed to keep famine from spreading beyond the north of #Gaza.”
• Jesse Marks- Senior Advocate for the Middle East
  • In March 2024, Marks gave an interview with Al-Jazeera alleging “Israel’s consistent obstruction of aid and the urgency of opening up more border crossings to facilitate aid into the strip”.
  • In April 2024, Marks tweeted, “It took a day for Hamas to slaughter over 1,000 Israelis and take hundreds more hostage. It took Israeli forces three months to render #Gaza uninhabitable through an extensive bombing campaign aimed to remove Hamas. It took six months for Israeli forces to kill over 30,000 Palestinians and force starvation on over a million in a manmade #famine…”
  • In June 2024, Marks tweeted, “ …Gaza is still on the brink of famine, SIX MONTHS after the initial warning. Half a million people face starvation.”
• Jomana Abunahla – Refugee fellow
  • Abunahla is a Palestinian and describes herself as an “asylum seeker in Egypt.”
  • In 2023, Abunahla worked for the MIFTAH in Gaza.
  • From 2022 to 2024, Abunahla was a member of the UN Women’s Gender Innovation Agora (GIA), a consultative forum and platform for regular dialogue and advocacy around gender with Palestinian youth.
  • According to Refugee International, her activities are “collecting testimonies from survivors of the 2023 Israeli attacks who have fled to Egypt, and advocating for their urgent needs with Al Rowat for Studies & Research.”
  • Abunahla is a member of the World Bank Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE) and Youth Advisory Panel.