New York (Quds News Network)- Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General António Guterres, said Israel is preventing the organization from retrieving aid trucks intended for starving people in the Gaza Strip, amid warnings of a looming famine after more than 80 days of total blockade.
Dujarric said there are 600 aid trucks on the Gaza side of the Karem Abu Salem crossing, but Israel has blocked the UN from retrieving the supplies for the past three days.
He explained that the UN must coordinate with COGAT, the Israeli government agency that administers activities in the occupied Palestinian territory.
“We need [Israeli] clearance to go get the material. We need their clearance to go back, and we also need to accept that the route that they’ve … given us a greenlight for is not one where we feel it is unsafe for the cargo and our colleagues to travel on,” Dujarric told reporters.
He said that the last time the UN was able to bring goods into Gaza, both the UN and the Israeli authorities had agreed to a route.
“The problems are that the insecurity continues, and frankly, they are not making it easy for us to deliver humanitarian goods,” Dujarric said.
On March 2, Israel announced the closure of Gaza’s main crossings, cutting off food, medical and humanitarian supplies, leading to an unprecedented deterioration of humanitarian conditions, according to reports by human rights organisations who have accused it of using starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinains.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report warned that almost a quarter of the civilian population would face catastrophic levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase Five) in the coming months.
However, after about 80 days of total blockade and starvation and widespread international outrage, Israel announced it will allow a very limited passage of aid trucks into the enclave until a new US-Israeli aid mechanism begins.
The limited number of aid trucks allowed into Gaza falls far short of meeting the territory’s vast humanitarian needs and instead serves as a “smokescreen” for Israel to “pretend the siege is over,” according to the medical charity Doctors Without Borders.
“It is a drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed, and significantly more aid must be allowed into Gaza,” UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a controversial aid organization backed by the United States, linked to the Israeli government and tasked to take over aid distribution in the besieged enclave, began its operations on Tuesday.
The new aid system, which limits food distribution to a small number of hubs guarded by American security contractors, seeks to wrest distribution away from aid groups led by the United Nations.
The UN and other aid agencies have repeatedly warned that the GHF plan is not neutral, violates humanitarian principles, and may expose civilians to harm. They have also said the model would increase forced displacement in Gaza. The UN has refused to participate in the plan.
On Sunday, Jake Wood, the Executive Director of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), resigned.
The organisation could not adhere “to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, which I will not abandon,” he said in a statement, and called for Israel to allow the entry of more aid.
“My heart broke over the famine crisis in Gaza, and I felt a deep obligation to do everything in my power to alleviate the suffering,” he wrote.
On Sunday, a Haaretz investigation revealed that several Israeli businessmen are among GHF’s owners.
On Saturday, Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter confirmed that Israel helped create GHF. He made the statement in an interview with PragerU, a right-wing American media outlet.
The NGO, which claims it has been based in Geneva since February, emerged from “private meetings of like-minded officials, military officers and business people with close ties to the Israeli government”, according to The New York Times.
TRIAL International, a Geneva-based NGO, said Friday it had filed two legal submissions requesting a formal probe into GHF’s activities and legal status in Switzerland, reported Reuters.
Starving Palestinians have expressed anger and dismay after the Israeli military shot at crowds of Palestinians who gathered at an aid distribution centre in Rafah, southern Gaza, on Tuesday, the first day the GHF operated.
Several reports and journalists in Gaza said hungry residents forced to stand outside a facility holding aid rushed inside because of delays conducting detailed security checks on recipients. Israeli gunfire killed three and injured at least 46 others.
Photos and videos circulated on social media showed hundreds of people lined up at one of GHF’s distribution sites near the so-called “Morag Corridor” in Rafah. Recipients are required to enter through an electronic gate.
Commenting on the Tuesday chaos and aid massacre, Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, said the incident was “chaotic, undignified and unsafe”.
“I believe it is a waste of resources and a distraction from atrocities,” he said of the mechanism put in place by the US and Israel. “We already have an aid distribution system that is fit for purpose. The humanitarian community in Gaza, including UNRWA, is ready.”
Dujarric said the images and videos from the aid points set up by GHF were “heartbreaking, to say the least”.
“We and our partners have a detailed, principled, operationally sound plan supported by member states to get aid to a desperate population.”
“Humanitarian aid needs to be distributed in a way that is safe under principles of independence [and] impartiality – in the way we’ve always done it… We saw the plan that they’ve [Gaza Humanitarian Foundation] published and that they presented to us, and it is not done with the parameters that we feel match our principles, which we apply across the board, from Gaza to Sudan to Myanmar, to anywhere you want to talk about.”
UNRWA Warns: Window to Prevent Famine in Gaza Is Closing Fast
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has renewed its call to increase humanitarian access to Gaza, as people across the enclave face worsening starvation. Israel is allowing only limited aid to enter, an amount the UN has described as “a drop in the ocean.”
“After nearly 12 weeks of siege by Israeli authorities, only a trickle of supplies has entered Gaza,” UNRWA said in a post on X.
“But what made it through falls far short of people’s massive needs. Unimpeded access for all humanitarian partners, including UNRWA, is urgently needed.”
On March 2, Israel announced the closure of Gaza’s main crossings, cutting off food, medical and humanitarian supplies, leading to an unprecedented deterioration of humanitarian conditions, according to reports by human rights organisations who have accused it of using starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinains.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report warned that almost a quarter of the civilian population would face catastrophic levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase Five) in the coming months.
However, after about 80 days of total blockade and starvation and widespread international outrage, Israel announced it will allow a very limited passage of aid trucks into the enclave until a new US-Israeli aid mechanism begins.
The limited number of aid trucks allowed into Gaza falls far short of meeting the territory’s vast humanitarian needs and instead serves as a “smokescreen” for Israel to “pretend the siege is over,” according to the medical charity Doctors Without Borders.
“It is a drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed, and significantly more aid must be allowed into Gaza,” UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a controversial aid organization backed by the United States, linked to the Israeli government and tasked with the delivery of aid to Palestinians in the besieged enclave, began its operations on Tuesday.
Starving Palestinians have expressed anger and dismay after the Israeli military shot at crowds of Palestinians who gathered at an aid distribution centre in Rafah, southern Gaza, on Tuesday, the first day the GHF operated.
Several reports and journalists in Gaza said hungry residents forced to stand outside a facility holding aid rushed inside because of delays conducting detailed security checks on recipients. Israeli gunfire killed three and injured at least 46 others.
Photos and videos circulated on social media showed hundreds of people lined up at one of GHF’s distribution sites near the so-called “Morag Corridor” in Rafah. Recipients are required to enter through an electronic gate.
The UN and other aid agencies have repeatedly warned that the GHF plan is not neutral, violates humanitarian principles, and may expose civilians to harm. They have also said the model would increase forced displacement in Gaza. The UN has refused to participate in the plan.
On Sunday, Jake Wood, the Executive Director of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), resigned.
The organisation could not adhere “to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, which I will not abandon,” he said in a statement, and called for Israel to allow the entry of more aid.
“My heart broke over the famine crisis in Gaza, and I felt a deep obligation to do everything in my power to alleviate the suffering,” he wrote.
On Sunday, a Haaretz investigation revealed that several Israeli businessmen are among GHF’s owners.
On Saturday, Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter confirmed that Israel helped create GHF. He made the statement in an interview with PragerU, a right-wing American media outlet.
The NGO, which claims it has been based in Geneva since February, emerged from “private meetings of like-minded officials, military officers and business people with close ties to the Israeli government”, according to The New York Times.
TRIAL International, a Geneva-based NGO, said Friday it had filed two legal submissions requesting a formal probe into GHF’s activities and legal status in Switzerland, reported Reuters.
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Get the latest CounterCurrents updates delivered straight to your inbox.
