Latest news with #Cherevko
Scoop
6 days ago
- Politics
- Scoop
INTERVIEW: Time's Being Wasted On Politics Of Aid While Deaths Mount In Gaza, Warns Senior Official
The UN already has a proven system to deliver assistance to people in Gaza and will not take part in any plan that does not uphold universally established humanitarian principles, a spokesperson for aid coordination office OCHA affirmed on Friday. ' There's been so much time wasted talking about the various proposals and the various plans. In the meantime, people are dying and are left without aid,' Olga Cherevko said in an exclusive interview with UN News. This week, UN agencies were able to bring limited amounts of food, flour and other items into Gaza after Israel lifted a nearly three-month aid blockade. Ms. Cherevko said humanitarians were told this was a temporary measure until aid distribution is implemented through the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an initiative backed by Israel and the United States. The plan sees aid dispersed from four points south of the Netzarim Corridor, which is under Israeli military control, and involves the use of private US contractors. She discussed this development, the positive impact of the trickle of aid allowed into Gaza, and the need to scale up efforts. ' There is a sense that some people feel like this is the end and that there is no turning back – and that they are just waiting to die,' she said. This interview has been edited for length and clarity Olga Cherevko: We've been speaking about this and other proposals and plans. Our concerns are that any distribution of aid, any system that exists, needs to be in line with globally established humanitarian principles. And if it isn't, it's not something that we can be involved in. We have concerns about the scalability of this proposed plan, and about various other parts of it. The biggest issue is that we have a plan, and we have a system that we are using as we speak, and the system has been tried over various crises across the world. It has been proven to work, it has mechanisms to mitigate theft, to mitigate diversion and it ensures that it reaches people wherever they are. So, there's been so much time wasted talking about the various proposals and the various plans. In the meantime, people are dying and are left without aid. The volume of aid is literally a drop in the ocean of what is needed UN News: The UN definitely will not be taking part in this plan, but did you receive any indications that you will be able to proceed with the work that you've been doing over the past couple of days? Olga Cherevko: For the time being it's unclear because obviously the resumption of limited volumes of aid entering that the Israeli authorities have approved as of a few days ago, we were obviously assured that we would be using our mechanisms – so the ones that we're using now, the ones that are already in place. We were informed that this would be an interim measure until this Foundation starts working. At this point, we really don't have more details and again, it will have to be seen on the ground how things will develop. UN News: Were any trucks allowed in today and was more aid distributed? Olga Cherevko: There have been batches of trucks coming in since this decision to allow them was approved. We have already been able to get some of the aid to the people in need, including getting flour to bakeries, and a number of bakeries have resumed their operations and fired up their ovens. We also had some partners who picked up the bread for direct distribution. A field hospital also received a batch of medical supplies. These are obviously very positive steps and positive developments in the right direction, but the volume of this aid is literally a drop in the ocean compared to the extent of needs on the ground. UN News: We heard that most, if not all, of the supplies that were allowed in yesterday were nutritional and food aid. Is this a new development that some medical supplies were allowed in today? How many people can be served with these food items and medical supplies? Olga Cherevko: The medical supplies were always part of the agreement to be included. But again, this is something that in itself is limiting because at the moment what is being allowed is things like nutrition, flour, some medicines and a few other things. It has to be a full range of things for us to be able to really deliver assistance at scale. In terms of how many people it will serve, you can compare the kind of volumes that we were having during the ceasefire to what we have now and you will see that it's woefully insufficient. But we have enough food alone to feed people for several months waiting at the crossings. UN News: The World Food Programme (WFP) said 15 of its trucks were looted. Can you tell us what's being done to prevent looting? Olga Cherevko: Regarding looting and break-ins or whatever to try to divert or take aid – if you look at the numbers of these kinds of incidents before the ceasefire and during the ceasefire you will see a huge change. There were barely any such incidents during the weeks of the ceasefire when we were able to bring in these large volumes (of aid). When the ceasefire broke down and the crossings were closed for the entry of any cargo, and we got to the point where we were really in a desperate situation and we were running low on everything, that is when they started again. UN News: Let's go back to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. As the four distribution points are going to be south of the Netzarim Corridor– reportedly one in Middle Gaza and the others in the south – are you already starting to see movements towards those areas? What are your concerns about displacement? People are sleeping in the streets because there's nowhere for them to go Olga Cherevko: Our concerns about displacement are what they have always been. Obviously, we would never support any sort of forced displacement, or any type of ethnic cleansing, or anything that would forcibly drive people from the areas where they are. Before the ceasefire, more than 90 per cent of people were forcibly displaced across Gaza and they were being squeezed into an increasingly smaller piece of land. When the ceasefire happened a lot of them went back. They tried to restart their lives and they kind of had a bit of time to process what's been happening. When the ceasefire broke down again on 18 March, we saw another 610,000 people displaced again. These types of displacement are getting more and more dangerous and desperate because people are coming with nothing. People are fleeing with just the shirt on their back. We're now hearing and seeing people sleeping in the streets because there's nowhere for them to go. As we've said time and time again, there is no safe place in Gaza, and this has been proven time and time again. UN News: You've been back and forth to Gaza for quite some time now, and you've seen the suffering first-hand. Can you give our audience an idea of what it means in real-life terms when aid is prevented from reaching those in need? Olga Cherevko: Something that has always stuck me about the Palestinians in Gaza is their resilience and their strength, and the spirit that they have kept throughout these months of war. I knew Gaza well before because I used to work there for several years starting from 2014, and knowing how people have endured so much suffering and despite that they find the strength to go, they find the strength to smile at you and to offer you tea or anything that they might still have. Now when I speak to people, the thing that is most devastating is that there is a sense that some people feel like this is the end and that there is no turning back and that they are just waiting to die. Before this limited aid was allowed to enter, the remaining operating community kitchens would have hundreds of people huddled around them waiting for hours with empty pots. Many were told to turn back because there's no food for them. People were telling me that they weren't eating for several days at a time. I saw children that are being malnourished, and suffering from malnutrition. These kinds of things are very preventable, and preventable deaths are happening all around us because of this intentional crisis imposed on Gaza by closing the crossings. And that is the most frustrating thing for me – knowing that we can quickly address these issues if only we were given the opportunity – because we have everything waiting outside of Gaza to come in.
Scoop
7 days ago
- Politics
- Scoop
INTERVIEW: Time's Being Wasted On Politics Of Aid While Deaths Mount In Gaza, Warns Senior Official
' There's been so much time wasted talking about the various proposals and the various plans. In the meantime, people are dying and are left without aid,' Olga Cherevko said in an exclusive interview with UN News. This week, UN agencies were able to bring limited amounts of food, flour and other items into Gaza after Israel lifted a nearly three-month aid blockade. Ms. Cherevko said humanitarians were told this was a temporary measure until aid distribution is implemented through the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an initiative backed by Israel and the United States. The plan sees aid dispersed from four points south of the Netzarim Corridor, which is under Israeli military control, and involves the use of private US contractors. She discussed this development, the positive impact of the trickle of aid allowed into Gaza, and the need to scale up efforts. ' There is a sense that some people feel like this is the end and that there is no turning back – and that they are just waiting to die,' she said. This interview has been edited for length and clarity Olga Cherevko: We've been speaking about this and other proposals and plans. Our concerns are that any distribution of aid, any system that exists, needs to be in line with globally established humanitarian principles. And if it isn't, it's not something that we can be involved in. We have concerns about the scalability of this proposed plan, and about various other parts of it. The biggest issue is that we have a plan, and we have a system that we are using as we speak, and the system has been tried over various crises across the world. It has been proven to work, it has mechanisms to mitigate theft, to mitigate diversion and it ensures that it reaches people wherever they are. So, there's been so much time wasted talking about the various proposals and the various plans. In the meantime, people are dying and are left without aid. The volume of aid is literally a drop in the ocean of what is needed UN News: The UN definitely will not be taking part in this plan, but did you receive any indications that you will be able to proceed with the work that you've been doing over the past couple of days? Olga Cherevko: For the time being it's unclear because obviously the resumption of limited volumes of aid entering that the Israeli authorities have approved as of a few days ago, we were obviously assured that we would be using our mechanisms - so the ones that we're using now, the ones that are already in place. We were informed that this would be an interim measure until this Foundation starts working. At this point, we really don't have more details and again, it will have to be seen on the ground how things will develop. UN News: Were any trucks allowed in today and was more aid distributed? Olga Cherevko: There have been batches of trucks coming in since this decision to allow them was approved. We have already been able to get some of the aid to the people in need, including getting flour to bakeries, and a number of bakeries have resumed their operations and fired up their ovens. We also had some partners who picked up the bread for direct distribution. A field hospital also received a batch of medical supplies. These are obviously very positive steps and positive developments in the right direction, but the volume of this aid is literally a drop in the ocean compared to the extent of needs on the ground. UN News: We heard that most, if not all, of the supplies that were allowed in yesterday were nutritional and food aid. Is this a new development that some medical supplies were allowed in today? How many people can be served with these food items and medical supplies? Olga Cherevko: The medical supplies were always part of the agreement to be included. But again, this is something that in itself is limiting because at the moment what is being allowed is things like nutrition, flour, some medicines and a few other things. It has to be a full range of things for us to be able to really deliver assistance at scale. In terms of how many people it will serve, you can compare the kind of volumes that we were having during the ceasefire to what we have now and you will see that it's woefully insufficient. But we have enough food alone to feed people for several months waiting at the crossings. UN News: The World Food Programme (WFP) said 15 of its trucks were looted. Can you tell us what's being done to prevent looting? Olga Cherevko: Regarding looting and break-ins or whatever to try to divert or take aid - if you look at the numbers of these kinds of incidents before the ceasefire and during the ceasefire you will see a huge change. There were barely any such incidents during the weeks of the ceasefire when we were able to bring in these large volumes (of aid). When the ceasefire broke down and the crossings were closed for the entry of any cargo, and we got to the point where we were really in a desperate situation and we were running low on everything, that is when they started again. UN News: Let's go back to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. As the four distribution points are going to be south of the Netzarim Corridor– reportedly one in Middle Gaza and the others in the south – are you already starting to see movements towards those areas? What are your concerns about displacement? People are sleeping in the streets because there's nowhere for them to go Olga Cherevko: Our concerns about displacement are what they have always been. Obviously, we would never support any sort of forced displacement, or any type of ethnic cleansing, or anything that would forcibly drive people from the areas where they are. Before the ceasefire, more than 90 per cent of people were forcibly displaced across Gaza and they were being squeezed into an increasingly smaller piece of land. When the ceasefire happened a lot of them went back. They tried to restart their lives and they kind of had a bit of time to process what's been happening. When the ceasefire broke down again on 18 March, we saw another 610,000 people displaced again. These types of displacement are getting more and more dangerous and desperate because people are coming with nothing. People are fleeing with just the shirt on their back. We're now hearing and seeing people sleeping in the streets because there's nowhere for them to go. As we've said time and time again, there is no safe place in Gaza, and this has been proven time and time again. UN News: You've been back and forth to Gaza for quite some time now, and you've seen the suffering first-hand. Can you give our audience an idea of what it means in real-life terms when aid is prevented from reaching those in need? Olga Cherevko: Something that has always stuck me about the Palestinians in Gaza is their resilience and their strength, and the spirit that they have kept throughout these months of war. I knew Gaza well before because I used to work there for several years starting from 2014, and knowing how people have endured so much suffering and despite that they find the strength to go, they find the strength to smile at you and to offer you tea or anything that they might still have. Now when I speak to people, the thing that is most devastating is that there is a sense that some people feel like this is the end and that there is no turning back and that they are just waiting to die. Before this limited aid was allowed to enter, the remaining operating community kitchens would have hundreds of people huddled around them waiting for hours with empty pots. Many were told to turn back because there's no food for them. People were telling me that they weren't eating for several days at a time. I saw children that are being malnourished, and suffering from malnutrition. These kinds of things are very preventable, and preventable deaths are happening all around us because of this intentional crisis imposed on Gaza by closing the crossings. And that is the most frustrating thing for me - knowing that we can quickly address these issues if only we were given the opportunity – because we have everything waiting outside of Gaza to come in.
RTÉ News
19-05-2025
- Health
- RTÉ News
Childhood doesn't exist in Gaza
Last week marked the deadliest in Gaza since the truce collapsed in March. In preparation for its extensive ground offensive, Israel said it struck 670 Hamas targets in Gaza over the past week. The Hamas-run health ministry reported that at least 464 Palestinians were killed in intensified airstrikes during the week leading up to yesterday. Olga Cherevko, spokesperson for UN OCHA, speaking to RTÉ from Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, described the latest wave of bombardment as a "very heavy few days". She spoke of intensified strikes around where she lives, with "explosions heard nonstop". Announcing its new expansive ground operation yesterday, the Israeli Defence Forces said it "will intensify the military control in the Strip by segmenting it and relocating the population for their own protection". But the UN OCHA spokesperson said no place in Gaza offers such protection. "The humanitarian zones designated by the Israeli military were never safe," she said, citing the Al-Mawasi camp near Khan Younis in southern Gaza as an example. According to Gaza authorities, 24 people, including women and children, were killed in the camp during an airstrike yesterday night. The escalation has forced many Palestinians in northern Gaza to flee their homes once again. According to Ms Cherevko, 63,000 people have been displaced in the last three days alone. More than 500,000 have been uprooted since the ceasefire collapsed on 18 March. According to the UN, 90% of Gaza residents have been displaced at least once since the war began in October 2023. Hospitals have come under increased fire while being overwhelmed by the surge in patients. Gaza's health ministry said the Indonesian Hospital, one of the largest partially functioning medical facilities in northern Gaza, had ceased operations. "The medics work under unbelievable stress and pressure and continue coming to work," said Ms Cherevko. "Some medical staff told me they never know whether they'll be next." Ms Cherevko, who worked in Gaza from 2014 to 2017 before returning last year during the current conflict, said, "Life was never easy in Gaza," but no one could have imagined "how bad it would get". The violence and deprivation are taking a devastating toll on children. "They have been deprived of every shred of childhood since this war began, having to grow up very quickly," she said. The education system in Gaza has collapsed, and UN workers are trying to offer some form of schooling to displaced children. "One girl I met in a shelter told me her favourite thing used to be waking up for school and going to class, dreaming of becoming an artist," Ms Cherevko recalled. "The only thing she's left to do now is try not to get killed - and wake up every morning to join the queue for water or food." After 11 weeks of complete humanitarian blockade - with no food, fuel, or medicine allowed into Gaza - UN OCHA has now distributed the last of its food stocks, Ms Cherevko said. With hot-meal kitchens shutting down rapidly, aid workers have seen a 75% drop in the number of meals prepared. "We went down from one million meals a day three weeks ago to just 250,000-290,000. The portions and variety of the remaining meals have been significantly reduced." Late last night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel will allow "a basic amount of food for the population to ensure that a hunger crisis does not develop" in Gaza. It remains unclear when the aid will resume or what exactly constitutes a "basic amount" for a population of two million.
Saba Yemen
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Saba Yemen
UN: Israeli aid plan in Gaza conflicts humanitarian principles
Gaza - Saba: Olga Cherevko, spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Gaza, confirmed that the Israeli plan to bring humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip contradicts basic humanitarian principles. In statements last night, according to Sputnik, she explained that the design of this plan means the continued deprivation of large parts of Gaza, including the least mobile and most vulnerable groups, of supplies. She emphasized that the plan contradicts basic humanitarian principles and appears designed to strengthen control over essential supplies as a pressure tactic and as part of a military strategy. For nine weeks, Israeli authorities have prevented all supplies from entering Gaza, no matter how vital they are to people's survival. Cherevko continued: "We have made it clear that we will not participate in any plan that does not adhere to the universal humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, independence, and neutrality." She concluded by saying: "We are prepared to increase the delivery of essential supplies and services, and we have large stocks ready to enter as soon as the blockade is lifted." The United Nations rejected an Israeli plan to regulate the entry of aid into Gaza, considering it a violation of the principles of humanitarian action: humanity, impartiality, independence, and neutrality. The international organization said on Sunday that Israel is systematically blocking aid, making the delivery of relief in a war zone impossible. It also called for the permanent opening of crossings for aid, respect for humanitarian law, and an end to the blockade to save the lives of civilians in Gaza. The UN team warned that implementing the plan would force civilians to travel to dangerous military zones to obtain food rations, endangering their lives and the lives of aid workers. It also made it impossible for people with special needs and the elderly to reach distribution points. Gaza has been facing a humanitarian catastrophe since last March due to the blockade imposed by Israel and its prevention of the entry of humanitarian aid into the Strip, amid international warnings of widespread hunger and the collapse of the health sector. The Israeli enemy resumed its aggression on the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, after a hiatus of about two months, specifically since the ceasefire agreement with Hamas went into effect on January 19. This hiatus followed the stalling of talks to extend the first phase of the agreement or move to the second phase. Whatsapp Telegram Email Print more of (Local)
New Straits Times
03-05-2025
- Health
- New Straits Times
Gaza aid work on verge of collapse
HUMANITARIANS on Friday described horrific scenes of starving, bloodied children and fights over water in Gaza, two months into Israel's full blockade on aid, with dire warnings that aid operations are on the brink of collapse. The Norwegian Refugee Council's (NRC) humanitarian access manager in Gaza, Gavin Kelleher, said "thousands of people will die" if nothing is done, as other aid agencies called for urgent international action. "The humanitarian response in Gaza is on the verge of total collapse," the International Committee of the Red Cross warned. "Without immediate action, Gaza will descend further into chaos that humanitarian efforts will not be able to mitigate." Israel strictly controls all inflows of international aid vital for the 2.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. It halted aid deliveries to Gaza on March 2, days before the collapse of a ceasefire that had significantly reduced fighting after 15 months of war. Since the start of the blockade, the United Nations has repeatedly warned of the humanitarian catastrophe on the ground, with famine again looming. The UN's World Food Programme said last week that it had sent out its "last remaining food stocks" to kitchens, and the 25 bakeries it supports in Gaza have closed due to a lack of flour and fuel. "Food stocks have now mainly run out," Olga Cherevko, a spokeswoman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, told reporters in Geneva on Friday via video link from Gaza City. "Community kitchens have begun to shut down (and) more people are going hungry," she said, pointing to reports of children and other very vulnerable people who have died from malnutrition and ... from the lack of food." "The blockade is deadly." Water access was also "becoming impossible", Cherevko warned. "There's a water truck that has just arrived, and people are killing each other over water," she said, describing a scene below her window. One friend said the situation had deteriorated so much that there was no water to save "people burning ... because of the explosions" while hospitals were running out of blood, even as mass casualties arrived. "Gaza lies in ruins. Rubble fills the streets... Many nights, blood-curdling screams of the injured pierce the skies following the deafening sound of another explosion," she added. The NRC's Kelleher meanwhile described an increase in "needs-based looting across Gaza" and condemned what he said was a "manufactured breakdown of civil order". "Israel is not only preventing food from entering Gaza but it has also engineered a situation in which Palestinians cannot grow their own food, they cannot fish for their own food and they continue to attack or deny access to the little left food stocks in Gaza," he added. Humanitarians also decried the mass displacement, with nearly the entire Gaza population being forced to shift multiple times before the brief ceasefire. Since the resumption of hostilities, Cherevko said more than 420,000 people have been forced to flee again, many "with only the clothes on their backs" and were shot at as they tried to reach overcrowded shelters. Pascal Hundt, the ICRC's deputy head of operations, said civilians were facing "an overwhelming daily struggle to survive" the hostilities, as well as repeated displacement and lack of humanitarian aid. The World Health Organisation's emergencies director Mike Ryan called the situation an "abomination". "We are breaking the bodies and the minds of the children of Gaza. We are starving the children of Gaza," he told reporters on Thursday. Cherevko slammed decision-makers who "have watched in silence the endless scenes of bloodied children, of severed limbs, of grieving parents move swiftly across their screens, month after month after month".
