Palestinians in Gaza ‘plunged into an abyss of suffering’
Sigrid Kaag, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Gaza, has told the world body’s Security Council the number of displaced people in the Gaza Strip had now reached 1.9 million.
As we previously reported, the UN estimated that up to 250,000 people have been impacted by the Israeli military order for people to leave al-Qarara, Bani Suhaila and other localities near the southern city of Khan Younis.
“Over one million people have been displaced once again, desperately seeking shelter and safety, [and] 1.9 million people are now displaced across Gaza,” Kaag told the 15-nation council, expressing deep concern about the latest evacuation orders in the area of Khan Younis.
“Palestinian civilians in Gaza have been plunged into an abyss of suffering. Their home life shattered, their lives upended. The war has not merely created the most profound of humanitarian crises. It has unleashed a maelstrom of human misery,” Kaag added.
She said that not enough aid was reaching the war-ravaged territory and the opening of new crossings, particularly to southern Gaza, was necessary to avert a humanitarian disaster.
Kaag said the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt should be reopened, and she also pleaded with the international community to do more to fund relief efforts.
For aid to flow into Gaza, there needs to be a ‘full and permanent ceasefire’
Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo, reporting from UN headquarters in New York, said Kaag stressed that until there is a full and permanent ceasefire, getting aid into Gaza is like “running up a hill. It’s very, very difficult.” “She said among other things they need a better deconfliction mechanism to get aid into Gaza,” Elizondo said.
“They also needed more assurances that they could get basic supplies in to not only people in Gaza … but also to UN staff and personnel,” he said. They include doctors who still lack basic supplies to help the wounded.
Elizondo explained that Kaag focused on the need for UN teams to have more “diversified routes coming into Gaza” and said she is engaged in talks with Israeli officials to potentially reopen the vital Rafah border crossing. “She talked about if they could get these aid mechanisms in place and working to their full capacity. She sees that as part of the reconstruction efforts,” he added.
WHO official says current aid efforts ‘insufficient and unsustainable’
Hanan Balkhy, the World Health Organisation’s (WHO’s) regional director for the eastern Mediterranean, has raised an alarm about the lack of aid entering the Gaza Strip, saying the operating environment for aid groups is becoming “increasingly volatile”. “The safety and security of our teams, and the dignity and rights of Gazans must be restored and protected at all costs,” Balkhy said in a social media post.
In a separate post, Balkhy said current efforts are “insufficient and unsustainable”. “Member States must do more to initiate solutions for this political crisis. We need peace, and we need sustained humanitarian access,” she said.
Balkhy’s comments came as she concluded meetings with the UN’s Middle East envoy, Tor Wennesland, and Muhannad Hadi, the world body’s regional humanitarian coordinator.
It was a pleasure to meet with Tor Wennesland, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. I appreciated his acknowledgment of WHO’s operational response in #Gaza. We agreed that while the humanitarian community has the capacity and resources needed to save lives,… pic.twitter.com/SOKc3RMnk5
— HananBalkhyحنان بلخي (@HananBalkhy) July 2, 2024
Gaza pier remains in Ashdod port, Pentagon says
The Pentagon says the US-built pier installed to transfer aid to Gaza has not been reanchored yet. The pier will remain in the Israeli port of Ashdod, where it was moved to last week, US Defence Department spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters.
On Friday, US Central Command once again removed the temporary pier from its anchored position off the coast of Gaza and towed it back to Ashdod. “We’re still assessing when it can be reanchored when sea states calm a bit,” Singh said.
“In terms of the distribution, you did see that some distribution did start back up over the weekend. It is going to take a few days to move some of that aid out of the marshalling area that had built up over time.”
Operation of the $230m pier, meant to boost deliveries of desperately needed humanitarian assistance to Gaza, has been paused several times since it was built in May.
