Gaza: UN Humanitarian Chief urges action to protect civilians and ensure aid access | United Nations

Addressing a Security Council meeting on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher today (16 Jul) said, “surely, we do not need to debate whether killing civilians waiting in line for life’s essentials meets the responsibility to provide for civilian needs.” Fletcher said, “Israel, as the occupying power, is obligated to ensure that people have food and medical supplies. But that is not happening. Instead, civilians are exposed to death and injury, forcible displacement, stripped of dignity.” Following reports of dozens of people killed or injured at one of the Israeli-militarized food distribution hubs this morning, he said, “we are awaiting the outcome of Israel’s investigation into this, and numerous earlier incidents” and asked Council Members to consider “whether Israel’s rules of engagement incorporate all feasible precautions to avoid and minimize civilian harm, in all circumstances.” Fletcher told the Council that “each time that we report on what we see, we face threats of further reduced access to the civilians we are trying to serve. We face that tension everywhere but nowhere is that tension between our advocacy mandate and delivering aid greater than in Gaza. Visas are not renewed or reduced in duration, explicitly in response to our work on protection of civilians. Security clearances are not granted for staff to enter Gaza to continue their work and humanitarian partners are increasingly denied entry to Gaza.” The Under-Secretary-General said, “we have a plan that works. It requires predictable aid, of different types and at scale, entering multiple crossings where people do not come under fire, travelling on routes that we choose, without long delays, being delivered to our warehouses and distribution points according to established UN aid mechanisms and humanitarian principles – the principles that you have given us the mandate to uphold.”


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