The UN relief chief on Tuesday strongly criticized Israel’s limitations on humanitarian assistance entering the Gaza Strip, labeling the proposed aid delivery system a “cynical sideshow” intended to divert attention from a campaign of displacement and immense suffering.
“Israel is deliberately and unashamedly imposing inhumane conditions on civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” Tom Fletcher told the UN Security Council during a briefing.
Fletcher implored the Council members to consider how their actions would be viewed by future generations. “Before starting, I ask you to reflect for a moment on what action we will tell future generations we each took to stop the 21st century atrocity to which we bear daily witness in Gaza,” he stated.
He described Israel’s reported plan to control aid delivery to Gazans through private US security contractors as a system that “practically excludes” the most vulnerable populations, including “people with disabilities, women, children, the elderly and the wounded.”
“It makes starvation a bargaining chip,” he asserted. “It is a cynical sideshow. A deliberate distraction. A fig leaf for further violence and displacement.”
Fletcher underscored the UN’s readiness to restart large-scale humanitarian operations in Gaza. “We have rigorous mechanisms to ensure our aid gets to civilians, not Hamas,” he affirmed.
“But Israel denies us access, placing their objective of depopulating Gaza before the lives of civilians. It is bad enough that the blockade continues. How do you react when Israeli ministers boast about it?” he questioned the Council.
He urgently called on the Council to “act now, decisively, to prevent genocide and to ensure respect for international humanitarian law.”
