“A few convoys passing through Rafah are nothing compared to the needs of more than two million people trapped in Gaza,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told the UN Security Council, referring to the only border crossing between Gaza and Egypt. .
After Hamas militants, who rule the Gaza Strip, invaded the territory of the Jewish state on October 7 and, according to Israeli officials, killed 1,400 people. people, mostly civilians, and took 230 hostages, Israel began a large-scale bombing campaign against the enclave.
The Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health has said that since then, more than 8,000 people have been killed by Israel’s relentless airstrikes in the Gaza Strip. people.
According to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ spokesman Stephane Dujarric, 33 trucks with water, food and medical supplies entered the Gaza Strip through Rafah on Sunday.
Before the war, about 500 trucks carrying humanitarian aid and other supplies entered the Gaza Strip every day.
“The system that brings aid into the Gaza Strip will be ineffective if there is no political will to ensure that the delivery is meaningful and meets the unprecedented humanitarian needs,” Lazzarini said, calling on the UN Security Council to insist on humanitarian aid in the usual way.
He noted that 64 of his UNRWA colleagues had been killed in just three weeks of war between Israel and Hamas, which Mr Lazzarini said was the highest number of UN aid workers killed in such a short period of conflict.
He added that a few hours before the meeting of the UN Security Council, an employee of the organization, Samir, was killed, as well as his wife and eight children.
“My colleagues from UNRWA are the only ray of hope for the entire Gaza Strip (…) but they lack fuel, water, food and medicine, so they will soon be unable to work,” said the head of UNRWA.
“The entire population is being dehumanized,” he warned.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell told the UN Security Council that her agency believes “the true cost of this latest escalation of violence will be measured in the lives of children – both those killed by the violence and those forever changed by the violence.”
Last week, the UN General Assembly passed a non-legally binding resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, but the UN Security Council has so far failed to agree on any text related to Israel’s war with Hamas.
After permanent members Russia, China and the United States vetoed previous resolutions, the 10 elected members of the UN Security Council began working on a new draft they hope to reach consensus on.
“We have the means to do something, but we fail repeatedly and shamefully,” said Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council.
“The eyes of the world are upon us and they do not shy away from our alarming failure to act,” he added.
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