UN aid chief urges action in powerful Security Council speech
Israel is deliberately and unashamedly imposing inhumane conditions on people in occupied Palestinian territory. That was the message from Tom Fletcher, the UN’s top humanitarian official, as he briefed Security Council members in one of the strongest speeches we’ve heard from a UN official in recent memory.
He told the council:
“Now, the ICJ [The International Court of Justice] is considering whether a genocide is taking place in Gaza.
“It will weigh the testimony that we have shared. But it will be too late.
“Recognising the urgency, the ICJ has indicated clear provisional measures that must be implemented now, yet they have not [been].
“Previous reviews of the UN’s conduct in cases of large-scale violations of international human rights and humanitarian law – reports on Myanmar, 2019; Sri Lanka, 2012; Srebrenica and Rwanda, both in 1999 – pointed to our collective failure to speak to the scale of violations while they were committed.
“So, for those killed and those whose voices are silenced, what more evidence do you need now? Will you act, decisively, to prevent genocide and to ensure respect for international humanitarian law?
“Or will you say instead that ‘we did all we could’?”
Years from now, people will be asking, “What did you do to stop the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza?” Fletcher is saying that simply responding, “We did all we could”, is not enough.
What’s happened when Israel, US tried to deliver aid in Gaza?
We’ve been covering global criticism of the US and Israel’s plans to take over aid distribution in Gaza. This is not the first time that the two countries have tried to sidestep the UN’s existing aid delivery system and take over distribution in the enclave.
For instance, in February 2024, after more than a month of denying humanitarian aid into Gaza City and northern Gaza, Israeli authorities organised the delivery of flour via private contractors.
The trucks entered the Strip through its northern perimeter fence, accompanied by Israeli tanks. Large crowds of people had gathered on al-Rashid Street to receive aid, and witnesses say Israeli forces fired on the crowd, causing a crowd crush, and that the tanks also ran over wounded people, adding to the death toll.
At least 110 people were killed and hundreds more were wounded. The incident would become known as the “flour massacre”.
The following month, in March 2024, then-US President Joe Biden announced plans to build a floating pier in Gaza to get aid into the Strip. The endeavour cost $230m to build and took about 1,000 US forces to execute.
But it was only operational for 20 days. It was shut down in July, after only bringing in the equivalent of about one day’s worth of pre-war food deliveries.
Even at the time, aid groups slammed the plan as a waste of time and money, saying the US should pressure Israel to open more land crossings and allow the aid to flow more quickly and efficiently through them.
Don't forget the air drops that ended up crushing civilians at 100x the price of letting trucks into Gaza.
