UNITED NATIONS, Jun 27 (APP): United Nations aid teams and partner organizations remain deeply committed to delivering lifesaving supplies to the suffering Palestinians in besieged Gaza, despite the increasing dangers of working there as Israeli attacks continue unabated, the U.N.’s top aid official has said.
Responding to media reports that the UN had warned the aid effort might have to stop unless the security situation and coordination with the Israeli military improved, Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths denied that any “ultimatum” had been given.
“We continue, as we have done for these many, many months to negotiate with the Israeli authorities and others with a lot of help, by the way, from the US, as you know, to get the right conditions to allow it to be delivered safely and securely,” he told UN News, a media website, in an interview, just days before he is due to step down from his post.
“We’re not running away from Gaza, at all, but what is true now – and I think that’s the basis for this story – is of course that we are particularly concerned about the security situation in Gaza, and it is becoming more and more difficult to operate.”
The UN relief chief’s comments follow the publication on Tuesday of the latest dire assessment of food insecurity in Gaza, which highlighted the “high risk” of famine across the whole Gaza Strip “as long as conflict continues and humanitarian access is restricted”.
“Aid can make a difference, that’s why we need to get all these crossings open,” Griffiths said.
“That’s why we need safety and security, that’s why we need the pier to restart and get that aid off the beach if that can be done too. We need all hands on deck for this…We’ll keep on at it. But we fail them daily every time we’re not able to get aid through to the people who need it.”
“The problem is a political one, that’s the real effort, that must be the focus of all our efforts. And indeed, one of the interesting aspects of the Middle East is that there is a lot of political diplomacy, a lot of mediation going on,” he added.
“By the way, I wish we could see that elsewhere, like in Sudan, but we need to see it bring results.”
After almost nine months of Israeli war in Gaza, UN aid agencies continue to report ongoing strikes across Gaza by the Israeli military, resulting in civilian casualties, massive forced displacement and the destruction of houses and other public services.
In its latest update, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, reported “especially intense” Israeli airstrikes in central Gaza in recent days, particularly in Bureij, Maghazi and Nuseirat refugee camps and eastern Deir Al Balah.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military’s ground offensive “continues to expand”, UNRWA noted, particularly in the southern regions of Gaza City and eastern Rafah, causing further suffering and further “destabilizing” humanitarian aid flows.
In addition to the war in Gaza, deadly violence has continued unabated against Palestinians in the West Bank, while a renewed escalation between Israel and Hezbollah fighters across the frontier with Lebanon prompted a warning from the UN Secretary-General that one false move could trigger a catastrophe for the whole region and beyond.
Beyond Gaza, MGriffiths defended the UN’s role in providing help to people in emergencies around the world.
“We delivered aid to 144 million people last year, that’s two-thirds of what we hoped to reach at a time when funding was problematic,” he said. “The aid agencies are doing an extraordinary job, and in particular within a global aid agency, the frontline deliverers.”
As staggering as the number of people receiving assistance may be, many tens of millions more remain beyond the UN’s reach, for lack of funding.
“The disparity between the amount of money – you know, more than $2 trillion a year spent on war – and the amount of money spent on humanitarian aid for peace-making is an astonishing disparity. And it’s a shameful one.”
He added: “We have to get rid of the notion that investing more than $2 trillion in war is a way of getting security in this world – it is not the way to secure this world. The way to secure this world is through people in general to their neighbours being kind to their neighbours too.
Reflecting on his four decades working “on the edges of war zones” and in the diplomatic corridors of power, Griffiths, a British national, insisted on the need for radical reform on the global humanitarian system, given the rising needs and protracted emergencies.
Changes may yet come, he noted, pointing to the fact that the “UN and civil society, host governments across the world and regional organizations” should “start looking at the fact that power is being redistributed in this world today.
“And maybe that’s not a bad thing either…We need to do this all at the behest of the people in those communities not what we think is best, but what they know is best.”