Humanitarians Face Mounting Challenges In Gaza Amid Funding Cuts And Aid Blockades

CHICAGO – The fragile ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas has led world leaders to increasingly call for the reconstruction of the now flattened Gaza Strip; But reconstruction seems a distant idea for humanitarian workers who, despite facing funding cuts and limited access to the region, are still urgently trying to alleviate suffering.

Since the US-brokered agreement came into force earlier this month, the United Nations and international aid groups have sought to step up aid operations in Gaza to reach injured and displaced Palestinians. But such a campaign is a huge undertaking when public trust and funding have diminished in recent years.

“Total humanitarian funding has decreased every year since 2022. This year we have only received 50% of what we received last year, and we are already towards the end of October,” Richard Brennan, former regional emergency director for the World Health Organization, said on Saturday. a conference in chicago Organized by humanitarian group MedGlobal.

“We can’t ignore what this means for people,” he continued. Citing a Lancet study It is estimated that approximately 40 million people will die by 2030 due to the decline in human systems.

The United States has been a key player in slowing humanitarian interventions since the Biden and Trump administrations stopped funding the only UN agency (UNRWA) with the existing infrastructure to handle the aid distribution Gaza needs.

Israel has long accused UNRWA of supporting Hamas in particular, leading many countries to halt funding to the agency and threatening Palestinians’ access to basic needs. Although the claim was unfounded, Israel effectively banned UNRWA from operating in Gaza, accusing Hamas of stealing aid from civilians.

When Israel could not support its claim with evidence, all countries except the United States continued to fund UNRWA. However, Israeli authorities continued to prevent aid from entering the region.

The International Court of Justice’s latest advisory opinion stated that “the occupying power shall never invoke security reasons to justify a general suspension of all humanitarian activities in occupied territory” and directed Israel to grant immediate access to Gaza to groups such as UNRWA.

In July, the Trump administration shut down the independent U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID); canceled most of the federal agency’s aid programs and turned the rest over to the State Department. Humanitarian experts have long warned that shutting down USAID would lead to an increase in preventable deaths in conflict zones.

“Political barriers are currently standing in the way of meeting humanitarian needs in Gaza,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, chief of Refugees International, which works for USAID under the Biden administration. “The decline in some basic humanitarian principles and adherence to international humanitarian law will haunt governments and humanitarian organizations around the world for decades.”

Brennan agreed, adding that the Trump administration’s decision to reinforce a false narrative about USAID workers makes it harder to convey to the public how dangerous things can be if humanitarian groups don’t have the support to build and maintain aid infrastructures.

“We’ve tried, but we’re drowning. We’re drowning because of people within the current administration saying we’re criminals, we’re incompetent, we’re lazy, we’re immoral,” said Brennan.

The United States, he continued, “will align its humanitarian assistance much more with national political interests.” “So much for soft power.”