UN appeals for $2.8 billion to help 3 million Palestinians in desperate need of food and other aid
UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations on Tuesday called for $2.8 billion to provide desperately needed aid to 3 million Palestinians. They emphasize that tackling the threat of famine in war-torn Gaza requires not only food, but also sanitation, water and health facilities.
Andrea De Domenico, the head of the UN humanitarian office for Gaza and the West Bank, told reporters that “massive operations” are needed to restore these services and meet minimum standards – and this cannot be done during military operations .
He pointed to the destruction of hospitals, water and sanitation facilities, houses, roads and schools, adding that “there is not a single university in Gaza.”
De Domenico said Israel’s recently ended second major military operation at Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical facility, was so destructive that the facility was forced to close. For example, he wondered what the military purpose was of photographing an MRI scanner that examines parts of the body and can detect cancer.
He said his team faced “a terror scene” at the hospital, with UN and Palestinian colleagues helping people identify relatives by shoes or clothing on “the remains of corpses.”
Israel vowed to open more border crossings into Gaza and increase the flow of aid into Gaza after its April 1 drone strikes killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers delivering food to the area.
The killings were condemned by Israel’s closest allies and amid growing criticism of Israel’s conduct in the six-month war with Hamas, sparked by the extremist group’s surprise attack in southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and about 250 others were taken hostage. Israel’s offensive in Gaza, aimed at destroying Hamas, has caused widespread destruction and killed more than 33,800 people, according to local health officials.
De Domenico said there are signs of Israel’s “good intention” to get more humanitarian aid into Gaza, citing the opening of a border crossing to the north, which faces the most serious threat of famine, and the opening of bakeries there .
But the UN continues to pressure Israel to do more, he said.
De Domenico pointed to Israeli refusals and delays to UN requests for aid convoys to enter Gaza.
He said 41% of UN requests that had to pass through Israeli checkpoints were rejected in the week of April 6 to 12, and last week a convoy from the UN children’s agency UNICEF and the UN World Food Program were caught in crossfire in an area that is supposed to be safe.
De Domenico said convoys often spend hours at checkpoints and are not cleared until the afternoon, too late to make deliveries and return safely in daylight. He said the Israelis know this is the way the UN operates, and that delays allow them to say “we are not blindly denying you” while they monitor what is happening.
“We continue to work with them and our goal is really to resolve the issue and provide relief,” he said.
According to the international community’s authority on assessing the severity of hunger crises, famine is looming in northern Gaza, where 70% of people experience catastrophic hunger. And the recent report warned that an escalation of the war could push half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents to the brink of starvation.
De Domenico said the UN appeal has been scaled back from $4 billion due to difficulties in getting aid to Gaza – and especially in reaching the people who need it most.
He said 90% of the $2.8 billion requested for the rest of the year would go to Gaza and 10% to the West Bank, where violence and settler attacks have increased.