Israel breaching international law by limiting Gaza aid, says Unrwa official | United Nations

A senior official from the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees said Israel is violating international law by continuing to impose restrictions on the flow of aid to Gaza, where people are severely deprived of food and life-saving goods as winter approaches.

The world, including the EU and the US, must increase pressure on the Israeli government to ensure the unrestricted flow of aid to Gaza, Unrwa deputy commissioner-general Natalie Boucly said in an interview during a recent visit to Brussels.

Unrwa has the equivalent of 6,000 trucks of food, tents and other basic supplies, Boucly said.

“As winter approaches and famine continues to affect the population, it is critical that all this aid is allowed into Gaza without delay,” he said. “Our supplies can provide food for the entire population for about three months. And that means standing outside.” [in Jordan and Egypt]I can’t get in. “It is the same for other UN agencies because restrictions and restrictions still exist.”

He estimated that only half of the 500-600 daily truckloads needed were going into the devastated area, “if at all.”

Boucly stated that Israel, as an occupying power, “does not comply with international humanitarian law and international human rights law”, citing the fourth Geneva convention and a recent advisory opinion of the international court of justice: in question Israel had to ensure that people in the occupied Palestinian territories had “basic needs for daily life”.

The same ICJ decision, published on October 22, concluded that Israel had an obligation to cooperate with Unrwa. The court found no evidence It was repeatedly claimed by the government of Binyamin Netanyahu that Unrwa was not impartial or that a significant portion of his staff were members of Hamas.

Israel severed diplomatic relations with Unrwa after accusing her of allowing Hamas infiltration and “widespread and systematic” misuse of its facilities by terrorists. The ICJ opinion noted that nine Unrwa employees were dismissed due to possible involvement in the October 7, 2023 attacks, but that Israel’s broader allegations were not proven.

Boucly said he had received no indication that Israel would change its no-contact policy toward his agency.

Unrwa was founded in 1948 to assist 700,000 Palestinian refugees displaced by the war that established the state of Israel. This was supposed to be temporary. Nearly eighty years later, Unrwa is a vital provider of health, education, social welfare and other services in the occupied Palestinian territories and neighboring countries where 5.9 million Palestinian refugees are registered.

“This is not the time for Unrwa to collapse,” Boucly said. “[We are] irreplaceable because no one can fill the void.

In Brussels, he was expected to discuss the agency’s $200 million (£152 million) funding gap through March with EU officials, among other issues.

“We were meant to be temporary. The only reason we are here is because there is a collective failure of the international community to find a political solution to this conflict,” he said.

Boucly said that for the first time since the 1993 Oslo Accords, there was light on finding a lasting political solution to the decades-long conflict. While he emphasized that it was not the UN’s job to decide the terms of the agreement, he warned of the risks of allowing “this unique agreement”. opportunity for peace to escape”.

“Neither Israelis nor Palestinians will live in peace unless you have a political solution,” he said.

He argued that European governments “have to put a different kind of moral pressure on Israel, you have to have a process of reconciliation, this military force is not going to make you live in peace.”

Boucly, who served in Jerusalem in 2023, recalled the trauma experienced by Israelis after the October 7 attacks, which led to a reaction against Unrwa. He said he was verbally attacked and his colleagues were physically attacked as attitudes towards the institution changed in Israel.

While he credited the Trump administration for the ceasefire agreement, he expressed concern that many of the peacemaking efforts were taking place “outside the usual tools of multilateralism and the usual structure of the UN for peacekeeping.”

Therefore, he said, important details such as the members and terms of reference of the proposed peace council that the US president would chair were missing. “You have to know where you are sailing, otherwise the winds will take you somewhere different,” he said.

Unrwa provides several hours a day of educational and mental health support to approximately 40,000 children through 280 “temporary learning spaces” in shelters in Gaza. However, it was stated that their work was disrupted because it was not allowed to bring pens and notebooks to the region in accordance with the import rules applied by the Israeli authorities.

Children in these centers endured unimaginable trauma for two years, which for many included being forced to move multiple times, deaths of close family members, starvation, and incessant bombings and destruction.

At least 2,596 children in Gaza lost both parents and 53,724 lost either their father (47,804) or mother (5,920) in early September, according to Gaza health ministry statistics cited by the UN child protection agency Unicef.

Boucly said orphans in Gaza “will have nothing to lose as long as they don’t see a future for themselves. Unless you offer these children something… we can’t rule out another terrorist attack. We can’t rule out the formation of armed groups.” [or] Much worse.”