More than 1,200 Israeli academics have issued an open letter calling on the heads of Israeli academic institutions to “speak out” and act to stop the war on Gaza.

In the letter released on Tuesday, the academics, who identify themselves as the Black Flag Action Group, claim that, since Israel violated the ceasefire in March, almost 3,000 people have been killed in Gaza. The vast majority of them, the writers say, were civilians. In addition to the growing numbers of people killed by Israeli fire, the authors note, are the warnings of acute starvation being forced upon Gaza as a “result of intentional and openly declared Israeli government policy”.