UN official says ‘even wars have rules’ and ‘civilians are not a target’
Imran Riza – UN deputy special coordinator for Lebanon, resident coordinator for the Middle Eastern country and humanitarian coordinator – says that “while the world is failing civilians in conflict and many around the world are losing hope in humanity, our mantra has been and remains: Even wars have rules, civilians are not a target.”
Riza, who made his comments to mark World Humanitarian Day, said he visited Hebarieh in southern Lebanon, where seven paramedics were killed when the Israeli army struck a centre belonging to the Lebanese Ambulance Association at the end of March.
Riza said he visited families and displaced people in the village “who have been uncertain about their future for more than 10 months”.
“Humanitarians are not a target,” he said in a post on X.
Marking #WorldHumanitarianDay, I visited the destroyed relief center in Hebarieh with our partners and Minister @nasseryassin. This center, where 7 paramedics were killed, highlights the risks humanitarians take to save lives.
Humanitarians are #NotATarget. pic.twitter.com/jRy7dYIzmx
— Imran Riza (@Imran_Riza) August 19, 2024
Politicisation of aid ‘dangerous’ and ‘disturbing’: ICRC
According to a new United Nations report, more than half of the 280 aid workers killed worldwide in 2023 died during the first three months of Israel’s war on Gaza.
Alyona Synenko, a regional spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), says several factors are “endangering” global aid workers.
“We have seen an increase in the number of armed conflicts around the world in the past decades. If we compare to now, we see three times the number of armed conflicts to what we had at the beginning of this millennium,” she told Al Jazeera.
Synenko said what was even more “disturbing and dangerous” was the politicisation of humanitarian aid.
“Sometimes it is the outright denial of these basic principles of international humanitarian law that are protecting civilians and that are protecting the humanitarian workers.”
