Palestinian men, UNRWA workers using aid to sexually exploit Gazan women

A woman said that after the pressure was made to sleep with a charity worker, a six -month contract was given with UNRWA.

Some Palestinian men use the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, as a way of pressure on sexual interactions that they will not consent.

The AP, who was anonymous due to fear of ordeal from men or their own families, said that some men are associated with humanitarian aid groups, for example Unwa.

A 35 -year -old widow reported that he gave his number to a worker when he was receiving help from UNRWA, which resulted in getting phone calls late at night. As the conversation began without harm, he explained how he quickly turned him into the color of his underwear and whether his husband was satisfied with him. He asked him to come to him for sex and said he had never received humanitarian help.

While making a complaint to the UN Agency, the woman stated that she was informed that she had to have a recording of her call for further investigation – a necessity and the agency’s own policy with the old phone model.

UNRWA Communication Director Juliette Touma does not tell the EP that the UN agency has zero tolerance policy for sexual harassment and does not require evidence, but whether the widow’s widow is aware of the complaint.

According to a statement dated March 2024, the UN claimed that 758 sexual exploitation and abuse committed by personnel in 2023. Hundred claims were reported in protection of peace and private political missions.

28 of the 143 victims identified were children and the majority of the cases (90%) occurred in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

UNRWA’s PSEA network, in 2024 in Gaza in connection with humanitarian aid in 18 sexual abuse and exploitation claims, he said.

A 38 -year -old woman was told that she was told that she would provide her food and potentially offer her a job in November. It was said that the man promised him a six -month contract with a charity agency.

However, it was reported that he carried him to an empty apartment instead of taking him to an uninhabited office to sign the documents. Here he instructed him to take off his headscarf. He told him how he said he wouldn’t force him to have sex with him, and he said he wouldn’t be allowed to leave so many apartments.

“I was scared because I wanted to get out of this place,” he said to the AP.

The aid finally took place in December after seeing a six -month contract for UNRWA. It also gave NIS 100 and a box of food and medicine a few weeks after the first sexual interactions.

“I told myself that no one would believe it,” he said. “Maybe they’d say that I just said that to give me a job.”

“It is a terrible fact that humanitarian crises make people vulnerable in many respects – increasing sexual violence is usually a result,” he said. “Today, the situation in Gaza cannot be said, especially for women and girls.”

Some of the women interviewed by the AP announced that it has been proposed many times by different aid employees.

A four -year -old 37 -year -old mother said that the AP had once approached twice with a shelter offering food and accommodation in case of “going somewhere together”. Understanding the desire was sexually, refused.

Another four mother complained to a help worker who offered to give her children only to her children. After rejecting and blocking him, the aid worker began harassing him with calls from different numbers and made rough comments.

Im I felt completely humiliated, ”he said. “I had to go and ask for help for my children. Who would it be if I didn’t?”

Five of the women who shared their stories with AP refused to have sexual interactions with men, but local psychologists warned that many women had. Four local psychologists told the EP to say sexual exploitation of dozens of women and many of them were pregnant as a result of abuse.

AP’s findings June 2024 Report By the Genoese -based group of NGOs and UN agency, a group of Genoese NGOs (GPC), who claimed to be the sexual abuse of vulnerable population by aid workers in Gaza.

In the GPC report, the claim of abuse of aid workers contained violence, exploitation and abuse, human trafficking and forced prostitution.

Choose to Israel ‘keeping focus’

“Israel’s siege in the Gaza Strip and restrictions on humanitarian aid, what forces women to resort to this,” said Amal Syam, Director of Women’s Affairs.

Israel and the United States have expanded their efforts to enter the Gaza Strip and enter Hamas, as the Sources of the Terror Group were repeatedly accused of stealing as a means of a reserve.

The US -backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation received a remarkable return from groups such as the United Nations, but although the authorities pointed to their own inadequacy in providing aid of the UN Gaza Strip.

Israel shared images of the UN aid on the Gaza border, and the group admitted that it had trucks full of peeled resources.

A volunteer called SYAM only working at the Women’s Affairs Center, said Palestinian women prefer to focus only on Israel. “Most of us prefer to focus on the violence and violations of the Israeli occupation,” he said.

Jerusalem post staff contributed to this report.