NEW YORK: People living in Gaza deserve to regain their “dignity” rather than merely survive, the UN aid chief said on Thursday, as he criticized Israeli obstructions to the distribution of humanitarian assistance.
Tom Fletcher, addressing the UN Security Council, acknowledged the flow of aid has improved since a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect on Oct. 10 — with an average of 100 deliveries entering the Palestinian territory each day.
But, he said, “these fragile gains are the bare minimum of what Palestinians need and what we can provide — and what international law demands.”
“We cannot allow the summit of our ambition and our will to be a world where children have sufficient calories to survive and are spared constant bombing, yet remain hungry, bitten by rats, homeless, and out of school,” Fletcher added. “It is not enough to silence the weapons — we must restore dignity.”
Fletcher specifically called for the opening of all crossing points into Gaza and the immediate lifting of Israeli restrictions on the entry of goods such as medical equipment and fuel.
Bushra Khalidi, a humanitarian officer with the NGO Oxfam, invited to address the Security Council, called on member states to act with “urgency, with courage, with humanity.”
A Palestinian was killed by Israeli gunfire near the Wadi Gaza Bridge in the central Gaza Strip on Thursday evening, while several others were injured in artillery and drone attacks targeting different areas of the territory, according to medical sources.
Meantime, medical sources reported that two wounded Palestinians arrived at Nasser Medical Complex after Israeli artillery shelling struck Al-Bi’a Street north of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
Several other civilians were also injured when an Israeli drone targeted a house near Al-Sunna Mosque in the Al-Nafaq area, north of Gaza City.
