The senior United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Gaza said Tuesday that the situation is “utterly devastating,” and more political will is urgently needed to get enough aid to desperate Palestinians in Gaza.
“I have said this to the [Security] Council — there's no substitute, no system can and will substitute or compensate for an absence or lack of political will,” Sigrid Kaag said. “This is political — political will and political choice. This you cannot ask of the U.N., of the humanitarians. This is where member states and the parties are at play."
Kaag spoke to reporters after a more than two-hour closed-door meeting with the U.N. Security Council about the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
She said her office has constant engagement with the Israeli government at all levels. It has negotiated and organized supply routes from Cyprus, Egypt, Jordan and Israel. It has worked out technical and logistical systems. But getting lifesaving aid through crossing points is still not enough if it does not reach the people who need it.
She said Palestinians in Gaza feel forgotten by the international community and are living between “a little bit of hope and ultimate despair,” hoping for a ceasefire.
Agencies face obstacles
Aid agencies have said for months that they face severe access constraints due to Israeli restrictions and denials, and lawlessness and looting by armed Palestinians and desperate civilians.
The situation is most severe in northern Gaza, which has been essentially cut off from aid for the past two months after Israel’s army relaunched an intense offensive to neutralize what it says are resurgent Hamas elements. Food security experts say famine is imminent in that part of Gaza.
U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Monday that the Israeli authorities denied the organization’s requests to bring food and water to the northern towns of Jabalya, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya. The World Food Program said last week that barely any food had entered those three areas for more than 50 days.
In central and southern Gaza, the situation is not significantly better. WFP said fresh food and meat are rare, and when available, prices are exorbitant.
Kaag said the commercial sector needs to restart.
“But we cannot meet the needs of civilians in Gaza even through a humanitarian pipeline as much as it can be ramped up and scaled up without the commercial sector,” she said. “It is simply not possible.”
15 bakeries remain closed
On Tuesday, Dujarric told reporters that U.N. agencies and nongovernmental organizations are prioritizing flour distribution to families in the southern and central parts of Gaza, providing each family with a 25-kilogram sack of wheat flour as it becomes available. In central Gaza, he said a bag of wheat flour can cost as much as $280, and in the south around $245.
Dujarric also said fuel was delivered to some bakeries on Friday and Sunday, allowing four to resume full capacity, but 15 others remain closed due to hostilities, flour shortages and safety concerns caused by overcrowding.
On November 30, two girls and a woman died during a crowd surge at a WFP- supported bakery in Deir al Balah. The food agency said the tragedy highlighted the severe food shortages driving people into desperation and urged authorities to ensure secure conditions for aid delivery.
