Hunger and desperation are pushing people to confiscate humanitarian aid arriving in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations said Thursday, warning of a “collapse of civil order.”
• Read also: Putin says the war in Gaza is a “disaster” that cannot be compared to the war in Ukraine
• Read also: The head of UNRWA insists that “the people of Gaza no longer have more time, nor any more options.”
The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said during a press conference in Geneva, on the sidelines of the United Nations Global Refugee Forum, “Everywhere we go, people are desperate, hungry and terrified.” .
He added: “We are on the verge of a possible collapse” in the Gaza Strip, “because the civil order is increasingly collapsing,” due to the war sparked by the unprecedented attack launched by Hamas on Israel on October 7.
Israel allowed the establishment of an additional checkpoint for humanitarian aid at the Kerem Shalom crossing before it enters the Gaza Strip from Egypt through the Rafah crossing. This is in order to increase the flow of products that fall within this framework within this region, but it is not sufficient at all, according to the United Nations.
The Rafah crossing remains the only entry point into the Gaza Strip that international organizations can use to deliver aid to residents whose living conditions are suffering from the disaster.
“The longer humanitarian aid remains insignificant compared to the enormity of the needs, the longer this tension continues and the more impossible the situation becomes,” said Mr. Lazzarini, who again recounted seeing residents of the Gaza Strip stealing food. They are transported by trucks carrying humanitarian aid and immediately eaten in the streets.
In response to a question: “I have not heard of any of our trucks being violently hijacked, whether by the United Nations or UNRWA,” by Hamas.
“With this growing desperation, our operating environment has become increasingly difficult. “At this point, in the absence of a ceasefire, the only way to remedy this (…) is to provide aid on a large scale,” he added.
He stressed that “hunger is something that the residents of the Gaza Strip have never witnessed before, but it has appeared in recent weeks.”
The Hamas attack from the Gaza Strip on Israeli territory on October 7 killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 240 others hostage, according to Israeli authorities.
In response, Israel carried out intense bombing operations, accompanied by a ground offensive, in which approximately 18,800 Gazans were killed, most of them civilians, according to the Ministry of Health in this Hamas-controlled area.
In the Gaza Strip, “people feel that the international community has abandoned them,” asserted Mr. Lazzarini, who said he was “shocked” by “the lack of compassion and humanity (…) when in reality what happened is that the international community abandoned them.” “. “What is happening in Gaza should make anyone angry.”
