As the General Assembly waits to convene to discuss the United States' veto of another draft resolution that sought to immediately cease hostilities, leaders of 19 UN agencies and partner organizations expressed frustration with the current context.
A statement from the Interagency Standing Committee warned of the spread of disease and the approach of famine, while water is scarce and basic infrastructure is being decimated.
“Food production stopped. Hospitals have become battlefields. “A million children face trauma every day,” the text says.
On Thursday, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Secretary General Christopher Lockyear described Israel's offensive as a conflict against the entire population of the enclave, a collective punishment without rules: a war at any cost.
When Lockyear briefed the Security Council on the organization's humanitarian work, he insisted on the need for “a permanent ceasefire and not a temporary lull,” rejecting the U.S. mission's proposal that is about to be debated.
The people of Gaza need a ceasefire not when it is feasible, but now. Anything else would be serious negligence, he assured.
For his part, the UN Special Coordinator for Middle East Peace, Tor Wennesland, lamented the lack of a political horizon for the region while humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip deteriorate.
The United Nations' ability to provide assistance depends on coordinated humanitarian movements, effective conflict resolution with the parties and Israeli approvals for critical communications equipment and armored vehicles, the envoy warned.
“Maintaining Gaza on a principle-down basis not only deprives a desperate population of life-saving support, but also creates further chaos that further hinders humanitarian response,” he added.
The context is particularly complex due to the deteriorating operations of the main humanitarian actor on the ground: the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
A letter from its Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini to General Assembly President Dennis Francis confirmed that the organization has reached a breaking point due to Israeli calls for its abolition and the resulting freezing of funds “when most needed.”
The agency's ability to fulfill its mandate is “now at serious risk,” while in just over four months “more children, more journalists, more medical personnel and more UN staff have been killed in Gaza than anywhere else” during conflict . the text emphasizes.
Lazzarini asked the forum for political support to prevent UNRWA from being swept away immediately, a crucial decision given the Security Council's paralysis in calling for a ceasefire.
The High Commissioner called on the Assembly to provide the necessary political support to maintain the agency or provide a path for “an immediate transition to a long-awaited political solution that can bring peace to Palestinians and Israelis.”
jha/ebr