Washington, DC – The United Nations (UN) has warned that threats to the delivery of humanitarian aid in Gaza have reached crisis levels as Israel continues its military operations in the Palestinian enclave. Advocates have criticized the United States, a key ally of Israel and the largest donor to the UN, for its silence on the matter.
On Monday, a UN official announced that the organization had been forced to pause nearly all humanitarian operations in Gaza following Israel’s issuance of another set of extensive evacuation orders. On Wednesday, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) declared it would temporarily halt travel for staff in Gaza after one of its vehicles came under fire near an Israeli checkpoint.
“The U.S. government has run out of words and has not even issued its usual symbolic statements regarding the UN’s suspension of aid in Gaza,” said Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), a Washington, DC-based human rights organization.
Legal experts state that blocking humanitarian aid to civilians and attacking aid workers may constitute war crimes under the Geneva Conventions. The UN also warns of a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where the number of acutely malnourished children has risen dramatically. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), there has been a 300 percent increase in acute malnutrition among children in northern Gaza from May to July.
Hassan el-Tayyab, legislative director for Middle East policy at the Friends Committee on National Legislation, noted that the shortage of essential supplies could further exacerbate the health crisis. “A 10-month-old baby in Gaza is now paralyzed in one leg: This is the first case of polio in Gaza in 25 years. This poses a massive threat,” el-Tayyab told Al Jazeera.
On Wednesday, the WFP revealed that one of its vehicles had been hit by Israeli fire ten times while on a clearly identifiable and fully coordinated humanitarian mission. The two staff members in the vehicle escaped unharmed, but the agency announced that it would pause the movement of its staff for the time being.
Gilles Michaud, UN Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security, cautioned that even if humanitarian operations could resume in Gaza, aid workers were operating under “the upper limit of tolerable risk.” Michaud also accused Israel of not providing sufficient warning to aid workers in cases of attacks.
Given the recent cases of polio in Gaza, the UN has issued a call for a seven-day “humanitarian pause” in the conflict to allow safe circulation of both aid and humanitarian workers. Advocates such as el-Tayyab believe that U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration can play a crucial role in making this pause a reality.
Senator Chris Van Hollen has also joined the UN’s call for a seven-day ceasefire to facilitate vaccinations for the approximately 640,000 children in Gaza. The Biden administration has expressed willingness to support efforts to combat polio in the enclave. Earlier this month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that he was working with the Israeli government on vaccine distribution. Israeli media reported on Wednesday that the government had approved temporary pauses in the fighting to allow for vaccine distribution, although no formal plan has been announced.
However, advocates express skepticism about whether any such plans will meet the needs of the Palestinians. Jarrar criticized the Biden administration for failing to hold Israel accountable for disrupting the flow of aid. “The Biden administration is so deeply committed to supporting and encouraging Israel’s crimes that it does not even bother to maintain precedence,” he said.
From their perspective, the Biden administration has avoided publicly criticizing how Israel restricts the distribution of humanitarian aid, and many are concerned that U.S. support for Israel will continue regardless of the challenges facing civil society in Gaza.