The Commissioner-General of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, says US President Donald Trump has the power to change the situation for Palestinians in Gaza by pressuring Israel to fully lift the more than two-month blockade on humanitarian aid entering the Strip.
“I do believe that President Donald Trump has the necessary influence to change the situation in Gaza and make sure that the siege be lifted and that the population get access to the assistance it deserves,” Lazzarani told Euronews.
His comments came as the UN said nine humanitarian trucks had been granted access into Gaza for the first time since Israel prohibited the entry of aid on 2 March, describing it as a “drop in the ocean.”
An Israeli official said the trucks would carry products “currently in shortage” in Gaza, including baby food, flour and medicine.
Lazzarini expressed “outrage” at what he described as the “fabricated” situation of “starvation” in Gaza.
“Well, first of all, it’s an outrage that we are confronted by a situation of starvation when it comes to Gaza. It’s a completely fabricated one. We are in a situation where hunger and food are being weaponised for political and military purposes,” Lazzarini said.
“What is needed in Gaza is a massive, unhindered, uninterrupted assistance of supply to make sure that we are reversing the trend of the spreading hunger,” he added.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that he had authorised the limited entry of aid after “pressure” from his allies, such as the US, who couldn’t continue to support his widened offensive as long as “images of hunger” were coming out of Gaza.
European foreign ministers are due to discuss a firmer response to the situation when they convene in Brussels on Tuesday, including a Dutch proposal to review the EU-Israel agreement that governs trade and cooperation between both sides.
That proposal, backed by at least 10 EU member states, should be “looked at” to monitor Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law, Lazzarini said.
The Dutch foreign minister said on Monday that the decision to let limited aid into Gaza was “inadequate and insufficient.”
A new plan, initiated by Israel and backed by the US, to use a charity and private firms to distribute aid in Gaza from new hubs is expected to be operational by the end of the week.
But the scheme has been firmly rejected by the UN for violating the principle of neutrality of humanitarian aid. The head of the charity leading the scheme has acknowledged it would not be able to feed the most vulnerable civilians, who would be required to walk long distances and carry boxes of supplies weighing up to 20kg.
Lazzarini said the plan would “cut off the aid to most vulnerable” and trigger the “forced displacement of the population at the time a large-scale military operation is also taking place.”
Gaza may soon become inhabitable, Lazzarini warns
Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel’s newly-launched ground operation was intended to “take control” of all of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli armed forces have since asked the population of Khan Younis to evacuate immediately, warning of an “unprecedented attack.”
Lazzarini described Israel’s plans for Gaza’s future as “dystopian” and, concerned by the lack of safe zones, suggested Palestinians may no longer have a place to live in Gaza if the offensive persists.
One of the plans being actively considered by the Netanyahu government, exclusively seen by Euronews last week, suggests the IDF could take control of the Strip in a first phase, potentially imposing martial law.
“What I see for the time being is a continuation of the destruction of the deaths and killing of the Palestinian in Gaza. And my fear is that we might reach a point where Gaza might not be a land anymore for Palestinians to live in,” Lazzarini said.
Until now, UNRWA has been the main provider of aid to Palestinians in Gaza and the wider region, but has been banned from operating in the Palestinian territories under Israeli leglislation that entered into force in January.
Israel says UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are inevitably compromised by Hamas, and that it has abundant evidence of the agency being “infiltrated” by Hamas militants.
Nineteen UNRWA staff members were dismissed last year over suspected involvement in Hamas’ October 7th attacks on Israel, which triggered the Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza.
Lazzarini defended the agency’s “no tolerance” policy, saying it “never received any substantiated information” from Israel regarding its allegations.
Israel has also said its blockade on aid was necessary because Hamas was “plundering” and “monetising” supplies entering Gaza.
“Nothing justifies that we use food or deprive an entire population frin having access to food to the extent that we are starving the population,” Lazzarini told Euronews, adding that no UN agency had seen “large scale diversion” of food and that looting had been seen among the population when there was “not enough food entering the Gaza Strip.”
Read the full article here
