United Nations chief Antonio Guterres defended the U.N. company for Palestinian refugees Monday as a “lifeline of hope and dignity.”
His feedback are available response to the Israeli determination Sunday to definitively bar the company from delivering support to the famine-threatened northern Gaza.
During a go to to Jordan’s Wihdat refugee camp within the capital Amman, Guterres stated it will be “cruel and incomprehensible” to halt UNRWA’s important providers to Palestinian refugees throughout the area.
The company faces a financing disaster after some key donor international locations lower off funding following Israeli accusations that a number of UNRWA employees in Gaza had been concerned within the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion.
On Sunday, the chief of the U.N. company, Philippe Lazzarini, stated that Israel had definitively barred it from making support deliveries into northern Gaza, the place the specter of famine is highest.
Guterres referred to as the choice to dam UNRWA convoys “totally unacceptable” and stated, “it is absolutely essential to have massive supply of humanitarian aid now, this means opening more entry points”.
“Despite the tragedy unfolding under our watch, the Israeli Authorities informed the UN that they will no longer approve any @UNRWA food convoys to the north,” Philippe Lazzarini, the pinnacle of the company, stated Sunday on X.
“This is outrageous & makes it intentional to obstruct lifesaving assistance during a manmade famine.”
Israel fired again, saying Monday that UNRWA “has long forsaken its role in facilitating aid to northern Gaza. While we’ve been working with aid orgs and other U.N. agencies to facilitate large amounts of aid to the north.”
COGAT, the Israeli Defense Ministry physique liable for Palestinian civilian affairs, claimed Israel “goes to great lengths to facilitate aid to northern Gaza, including by opening a new crossing in northern Gaza.”
UNRWA director of communications, Juliette Touma, informed AFP the choice to not approve deliveries to the north had been relayed in a gathering with Israeli navy officers Sunday.
It adopted two denials in writing for convoy deliveries to the north final week. No cause for the choice was given, Touma stated.
The company employs some 30,000 individuals throughout the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, offering healthcare, schooling and different fundamental providers.
“We must strive to keep the one-of-a-kind services that UNRWA provides flowing because that keeps hope flowing,” Guterres stated throughout his go to to the camp.
“In a darkening world, UNRWA is the one ray of light for millions of people. I see that hope here. Now more than ever, we must not take away that hope.”
He additionally sought to “honor the 171 women and men of UNRWA who have been killed in Gaza – the largest number of deaths of U.N. staff in our history.”
‘Decision should be revoked’
Gaza faces dire humanitarian situations on account of Israel’s brutal conflict on the enclave that started practically six months in the past, triggered by the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion on southern Israel.
Last week a U.N.-backed meals safety evaluation warned that famine was projected to hit the north of Gaza by May except there was pressing intervention.
UNRWA has not been in a position to ship meals to the north since Jan. 29, Touma stated.
“The latest decision is another nail in the coffin” for efforts to get desperately wanted support to Gazans reeling from conflict, Touma stated.
Martin Griffiths, head of the U.N. humanitarian coordination workplace, stated on X Sunday that UNRWA “is the beating heart of the humanitarian response in Gaza.”
“The decision to block its food convoys to the north only pushes thousands closer to famine. It must be revoked,” he added.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, stated on X that blocking UNRWA support deliveries was “in fact denying starving people the ability to survive.”
Touma stated Israeli authorities Sunday additionally rejected a U.N. request to ship a crew to Al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza, the place preventing has flared for nearly per week, “to evacuate people who are injured.”
The Oct. 7 incursion resulted within the deaths of about 1,160 individuals, in line with an AFP tally of Israeli figures.
Israel’s navy marketing campaign on Gaze, compared, has killed at the very least 32,226 individuals, largely ladies and kids, in line with the territory’s Health Ministry.
Source: www.dailysabah.com