Palestine’s UN envoy says ‘tears, outrage’ not enough for Gaza
It’s been a busy day at the UN in New York, with the Security Council also holding an open debate earlier on the protection of civilians in armed conflict.
The meeting’s focus often shifted to Gaza, with the Palestinian ambassador to the UN delivering a powerful call to action to end Israel’s war on the enclave.
“The whole world chants for Gaza, weeps for Gaza, aches for Gaza, is outraged by what is happening in Gaza,” Majed Bamya said.
“But the people in Gaza, the children of Gaza, have no use for our chants, for our tears and for our outrage – if they are not accompanied by actions that could actually stop the killing, feed the hungry, heal the wounded, save those who can still be saved.”
Bamya, the Palestinian UN ambassador, has also urged the international community to ask questions of itself as Israel’s war on Gaza continues unabated.
“What are we going to say?” Bamya asked the Security Council.
“That the whole world was opposed to mass indiscriminate killing, but it continued anyways? The whole world was opposed to wanton destruction, but stayed until all of Gaza was flattened? The whole world was outraged by the use of starvation as a method of war and the declared blockade, but could not lift it?
“That it’s ultimately for Israel to decide who lives and who dies? If that’s our plan, God have mercy over the 2 million people in Gaza.”
Seventy percent of Gaza’s water, sanitation system damaged or destroyed: UNICEF
Ted Chaiban, UNICEF’s deputy executive director, says more than 70 percent of Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed since Israel’s war began.
Speaking at a UN Security Council meeting on water in armed conflict, Chaiban said that “repeated blockades have prohibited the entry into the Gaza Strip of fuel and critical components to run water facilities.”
“Currently, the desalination plant in southern Gaza is working at reduced capacity on backup generators,” he said.
“We urgently need the power supply to the desalination plant to be switched back on to provide at least 600,000 internally displaced Gazans in the south of the Strip with access to safe water.”
A boy carries water in a pot in Jabalia in northern Gaza
People in Gaza traveling 25km to reach aid points: WFP
A spokesman for the UN’s World Food Programme tells Al Jazeera that Palestinians are travelling roughly 15.5 miles to get life-sustaining aid, two days after Israel allowed the first trucks into the Strip in months.
The aid, however, the spokesman said, is not nearly enough. Gaza requires at least 500 trucks per day to adequately feed and care for the population.
