Gaza is the 'hungriest place on Earth', says UN aid chief

RTÉ News​

5 days ago

Gaza is the "hungriest place on Earth right now", with people willing to do anything to get food for their children, UN aid chief Tom Fletcher has said.
The Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator with the United Nations said there are 180,000 pallets of food at the border between Gaza and Israel that could feed all the civilians in war torn territory for several months.
Negotiations to end more than 19 months of war have so far failed to achieve a breakthrough, with Israel resuming attacks in Gaza in March after a brief truce.
Israel imposed a blockade then, saying Hamas was seizing supplies meant for civilians.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mr Fletcher said: "What we're seeing is a deliberate blockade that lasted 80 days. We've now had 10-11 days where in theory, we've been able to get aid in, but it's a trickle. It's a drop in the ocean of what's needed.
"We're talking about a few hundred trucks at best and during the ceasefire, when we were able to operate still with restrictions, we were getting in 600-700 trucks every day," he said.
He said Israeli ministers are saying they want to withhold food from the civilian population to put more pressure on Hamas.
Mr Fletcher said there are also concerns over the distribution of food by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private group backed by the United States and endorsed by Israel.
"We're very worried about anything that dehumanises the population or anything that forces them to be displaced."
He said around 80% of Gaza lies within the Israeli militarised zone or in areas placed under displacement orders and there is concerns that aid will be used to "further encourage people to move from where they are meant to be, from their homes and from their communities".
Mr Fletcher also said his organisation is not seeing Hamas stealing aid that is being delivered.
"We're not seeing that at the moment. They've been staying out of the way and mostly during the ceasefire, when we were delivering much more aid, 607 hundred trucks a day, they were staying out of the way" and civilians who needed it were getting the aid.
He described the situation in Gaza as "an amazingly complex operating environment" and very insecure.
"We're operating in a war zone, lots of armed groups on the ground, there was lots of looting and insecurity, so can I guarantee that every grain of rice escapes Hamas? It's very, very hard to do that."
Mr Fletcher acknowledged that some aid was being stolen as it was moved across the border by what he described as criminal gangs.
He also called for the hostages in Gaza to be released, adding that he has spent time with families of some of the hostages and that they are desperate to get their loved ones home.
"It's a ceasefire that gets those loved ones home. Not more of this horrendous military offensive," he said.
Ask about his comments earlier this month to the BBC, that "14,000 babies would die in 48 hours without aid", a timeline that was later retracted by the UN, he said "we clarified that and I should have been more careful with my words"
But, he added, two million people are risk of famine right now because of the impact of the Israeli blockade.