Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians whose lives are precarious in war-torn Gaza will face catastrophic consequences if humanitarian aid to the region is not massively expanded in the coming days, a senior United Nations official has warned.
Jamie McGoldrick, the outgoing UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Occupied Palestine, said: “We have to have a system that allows us to be safe and protected when delivering aid, which Israel does in the territories they occupy. Responsibility in action.
McGoldrick told reporters in Geneva on Friday that it was difficult and dangerous for aid workers to move around Gaza and deliver aid, noting that a UNICEF vehicle was hit with live fire on Tuesday as it waited to enter northern Gaza. middle.
The incident comes after Israel killed seven World Central Kitchen workers delivering aid to Gaza on April 1 and attacked and robbed a World Food Program convoy of 14 trucks last month Travel to northern Gaza.
He said the developments showed “the systems we use for our own protection and security are not working”.
Speaking about the convoy that came under attack, McGoldrick said: “I think the humanitarian workers there were concerned for their safety. “We know that the deconfliction and notification system was flawed.
“We don’t have functioning communications equipment inside Gaza like we would in other situations, and secondly, we don’t have a hotline or an emergency number to call in the event of an emergency, so it’s important that we have addressed this issue.”
McGoldrick said he met with Maj. Gen. Aaron Finkelman, commander of the Israel Defense Forces Southern Command, this week and presented him with a list of requests that would make it possible “safely, effectively and if necessary.” Humanitarian assistance is provided throughout Gaza. “
He said he told the Israeli major general, “We are working in a very hostile area and cannot communicate with each other. We have no radios. We have no mobile networks.
“If we have a serious security incident, we don’t have a hotline. We can’t communicate with the IDF that we have a problem at a checkpoint or have a problem en route.”
McGoldrick said the major general told him he would move things forward and that a member of the IDF would be part of a new humanitarian coordination and deconfliction team to improve the situation for Palestinians in Gaza.
“We have a commitment from the major general and we will hold him to that commitment and make sure we get the program up and running as quickly as possible,” he said.
McGoldrick noted that the aid entering northern Gaza is insufficient to meet the huge needs of tens of thousands of people who are deprived of food, medical services and other life-saving necessities.
“We can see it through health status. We can see it through nutritional status,” he said. “Children showing signs of severe malnutrition, in fact IPC [Integrated Food Security Phase Classification] Emphasizing that 70% of the population is at risk of falling into famine, we need to see this change, but that is not happening. “
Another area of high concern for humanitarians is the potential Israeli invasion of Rafah. McGoldrick said people he met during a visit to Gaza a few days ago were very worried about possible attacks, and he shared Finkelman’s concerns.
“We’ve been insistent from day one that we need time to prepare supplies and pre-position them to where people may be relocated,” he said. “We can’t do that now because we don’t have enough regular supplies.
“We are barely able to feed and support our people at the moment. If we were to add another layer to the contingency planning process for the Rafah invasion, we are not ready,” he said.
In response to a health system that is no longer functioning, WHO is setting up emergency medical field hospitals in northern and central Gaza to try to provide services “if Rafah is caught in some kind of military operation,” he said. Invasion, we can’t operate from there. “
“We are facing a truly dramatic situation,” he said.
“In the event of an invasion in Rafah, the figures mentioned are about 800,000 people to be evacuated from Rafah. The space we see now cannot accommodate that many people,” he said.
“We are sounding the alarm that we are nowhere near ready to meet the demand. We will not be helping anyone move or evacuate, but we must be ready to support them when they arrive at another destination,” he said. “Some people have been displaced five or six times.”
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