Describing the situation in the Gaza Strip as "appalling and apocalyptic", the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General on Monday urged world leaders to act decisively to alleviate suffering and prevent further devastation in the enclave. Speaking at a ministerial conference in Cairo on humanitarian aid for Gaza, she was joined by other senior UN officials in calling for an immediate end to the humanitarian catastrophe that has plagued the territory for nearly 14 months.
“In the face of the gigantic needs, humanitarian aid is — outrageously — being blocked. This flies in the face of the clear requirements under international humanitarian law to respect and to protect civilians and to ensure their essential needs are met,” said UN deputy chief Amina Mohammed, speaking on behalf of UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
She said the blocking of humanitarian aid defies numerous General Assembly and Security Council resolutions calling for a ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian access, and ignores the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which has issued binding interim orders "that must be complied with".
International humanitarian law (IHL) requires Israel to ensure that the basic needs of the people of Gaza are met. Among other things, it must ensure that Gaza is supplied with sufficient water, food, medical supplies and other basic necessities to enable the population to survive.
However, since Israel imposed a full siege on the Gaza Strip on October 9, 2023, the amount of aid entering the enclave has never been sufficient to meet the needs on the ground. For more than a year, Israel has failed to provide, or even facilitate the delivery of, essential supplies to the 2.1 million people still living in Gaza.
“In North Gaza, the situation is growing more perilous by the day,” Mohammed said, noting that the humanitarian community was doing all it could, but the obstacles were overwhelming.
Several senior UN officials spoke alongside the Deputy Secretary-General in Cairo to highlight the horrific humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Also addressing the conference was Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), who said that Palestinians in Gaza were trapped in a “dystopian nightmare”.
“More than 44,000 people are reported killed – 70 percent are women and children. Thousands more lie unaccounted for under the rubble. Those not killed by bombardment are stalked by hunger and disease,” Lazzarini said, stressing that UNRWA remained the backbone of the humanitarian response "amid this unrelenting misery".
On Sunday, the UNRWA chief had announced that the UN agency was suspending aid deliveries through Kerem Shalom, the main crossing point for humanitarian aid into Gaza, due to a breakdown in law and order. The road out of the crossing has not been safe for months; last month, 90 percent of aid trucks - 98 out of 109 - were looted at Kerem Shalom.
“The breakdown of civil order has forced us to pause aid deliveries through Kerem Abu Salem [Kerem Shalom] – another blow to a desperate population,” Lazzarini said today.
“Humanitarian work can only succeed when shielded by a robust international legal and political framework. Without this, humanitarians – however selfless and courageous – cannot stay and deliver.”
While it is the responsibility of UN Member States to ensure the necessary conditions for safe and effective humanitarian operations, Israel has failed to meet its obligations under international law for more than a year, resulting in the starvation and death of an undetermined number of Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is being sought by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity in relation to the situation in Gaza. The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in November. Among other things, the ICC judges found that there were reasonable grounds to believe that he had committed the war crime of using starvation as a method of warfare.
At the conference, Sigrid Kaag, Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza, painted a grim picture of the destruction and trauma she had witnessed during her visits.
“I have to say, I have visited Gaza over three decades in my life, in different capacities, and nothing prepares you as a fellow human being to the toll, the trauma, the suffering, the loss and the sense of abandonment Palestinian civilians feel,” she said.
“Abandoned by the international community despite our efforts, and of course, their individual losses.”
She noted that all humanitarian assistance to date was a mere drop in the ocean.
“The Palestinian civilians - and this is not a rhetorical sentence I’m expressing - cannot endure another day of this man-made catastrophe and to live a life in dystopia. An immediate, unconditional ceasefire is not only a moral imperative - it is a legal and humanitarian necessity,” Kaag said.
“It is unacceptable that civilians are asked to bear the brunt of this man-made disaster. International humanitarian law needs to be complied with. Therefore, the call for an immediate and ceasefire is not a second too late.”
During today's ministerial conference in Cairo, Muhannad Hadi, the Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), warned that conditions in Gaza were unfit for human survival. Civilians were unable to meet even the most basic human needs such as water, shelter, food and health care. People were deprived of basic necessities, including humanitarian aid.
“Every civilian in Gaza—man, woman, and child—lives in the shadow of death. If not killed by bombs or bullets, they risk dying from the lack of food, water, and medical care. Women are dying in childbirth at three times the rate compared to levels before October 2023,” he said.
Speaking on behalf of Tom Fletcher, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Hadi added that UN trucks had been looted 75 times so far this year. Armed groups had also broken into UN facilities 34 times.
“The complete breakdown of public order has fueled a surge in the looting of aid trucks. Civilian police are attacked and prevented from operating by Israeli forces,” he said.
In an update today, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that the situation in Gaza is rapidly deteriorating as the death toll continues to rise. Palestinians in the territory continue to be displaced and face critical food and water shortages. According to the UN World Food Programme (WFP), barely any food has been allowed into the besieged areas of the North Gaza Governorate for more than 50 days.
Meanwhile, the UN and its humanitarian partners continue to risk their lives to deliver aid. On Saturday, Israeli air strikes killed four humanitarian workers - three from World Central Kitchen (WCK) and one from Save the Children - bringing the total number of aid workers killed since October last year to at least 341. In response, World Central Kitchen has suspended its operations in Gaza.
Gaza is on the brink of famine, with more than 2 million people facing severe food shortages amid high rates of disease, inadequate shelter and limited access to safe water and sanitation. Humanitarian agencies warn that local food systems have been devastated by military ground operations, shelling of civilian areas and the presence of unexploded ordnance.
The Israeli military is subjecting the entire population of Gaza to bombardment, siege and the threat of starvation, and Israeli security forces have killed more than 44,000 people and wounded more than 104,000 others, most of them civilians, since the war began in October last year.
The war in Gaza has been characterized by grave war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious violations of international humanitarian law by Israeli forces. These include the collective punishment of civilians, the use of starvation as a method of warfare, the denial of humanitarian aid, the targeted killing of civilians, the indiscriminate killing of civilians, disproportionate attacks, forced displacement, torture, enforced disappearances and other atrocity crimes.
There is growing evidence that Israeli policies and military actions targeting Palestinians as a group amount to genocide, one of the worst crimes known to humankind.