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Middle East Eye
6 days ago
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
'A distraction': Unrwa says Israeli and GHF claims over UN aid delivery are baseless
The United Nations Reliefs and Work Agency (Unrwa) has hit back at a smear campaign launched by Israel and the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF) accusing the UN of failing to deliver aid and being responsible for the mass famine underway in Gaza. In a video placed by the Israeli Government Advertising Agency, a narrator is heard saying: "While Israel cleared hundreds of trucks that crossed into Gaza, the UN refuses to distribute the aid. These trucks stand idle inside Gaza next to growing stockpiles of supplies. This is deliberate sabotage by the UN." The video then shows dozens of immobile trucks. Juliette Touma, director of communications at Unrwa, debunked the claims that trucks were sitting "idle" in Gaza, and aid within the enclave had not been delivered. "We have 6,000 trucks stuck in Jordan and Egypt full of food and medicines," Touma told Middle East Eye. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters "They have not been given the green light to get into Gaza where people are starving." Separately, the GHF chairman, evangelical Christian minister Reverend Johnnie Moore, wrote a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday and to the Under-Secretary General of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Tom Fletcher, on Tuesday, saying he wanted to collaborate with the UN and accused the UN of leaving aid abandoned in Gaza. In the letter addressed to Guterres, Moore wrote that he wished to collaborate with the UN. "The time has come to confront, without euphemism or delay, the structural failure of aid delivery in Gaza, and to course-correct decisively," he wrote. 'We have 6,000 trucks stuck in Jordan and Egypt full of food and medicines. They have not been given the green light to get into Gaza where people are starving' - Juliette Touma, Unrwa Moore said the "crisis was driven by the ability to deliver the food directly to those who need it. The UN's continued reliance on what it has termed 'existing infrastructure' has, in practice enabled the obstruction of aid". Moore blamed the failure of food delivery to civilians on the "manipulation of humanitarian flows by bad actors" without identifying who the "bad actors" were. He called on the UN to work directly with GHF to deliver "food at scale". In a letter to Fletcher, he accused the UN of leaving aid sitting around and failing to deliver it. Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, also accused OCHA of being a "propaganda machine" against Israel, which he said purposely undercounts aid trucks heading into Gaza. The campaign comes as mass famine reaches critical levels with two million people on the brink of starvation in the enclave. 'A distraction to the inaction' Touma from Unrwa said that aid had been waiting to enter Gaza since 2 March. On 18 March, Israel abruptly ended the ceasefire that had been in place since 19 January, and has maintained a blockade on the Strip. Touma said there had to be "political will" for UN teams to enter, and added that the smears against the UN were "nothing new" and were distracting from the real issue: people starving in Gaza. "Distractions like these will delay actions that are needed. Children and adults are dying of starvation. Because of this scam of a distribution system [GHF], more than 1,000 starving people have been killed. "It's time to lift the siege, let aid in and release the hostages. It's time to allow Unrwa to do its work. There will be irreversible consequences if we do not." She advocated returning to the existing infrastructure in place managed by Unrwa. Unrwa has been banned from the occupied West Bank and Gaza since October. Children in Gaza show signs of malnutrition and abuse after detention in Israel Read More » She added that there was "a lot of manipulation of information" and called on media organisations to verify the videos being sent. "The media gets fixated on information that one side to the conflict is putting out. That's a distraction from the atrocities including the deliberate starvation of Palestinian people. "It's time for the media to verify these videos and geolocate the trucks and whether these videos are from Gaza or not, and when they were actually stationed there." Unrwa's Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said on Thursday that the mass starvation was "constructed and deliberate". In a statement, he said that GHF's flawed distribution system is not designed to address the humanitarian crisis. "It's serving military and political objectives. It's cruel as it takes more lives than it saves lives. Israel controls all aspects of humanitarian access, whether outside or within Gaza." He also said that airdrops – which Israel had approved – were "the most expensive and inefficient way to deliver aid". "It is a distraction to the inaction," he added. Starvation More than 100 humanitarian organisations warned on Wednesday that "mass famine" was spreading in the Gaza Strip after Israel blocked humanitarian aid from entering in early March and has been providing woefully inadequate aid via the controversial GHF since the end of May. MEE reported on Tuesday that renowned expert on famine, Professor Alex de Waal, accused Israel of "genocidal starvation" of Palestinians in Gaza with its continued deadly siege on the enclave. 'Because of this scam of a distribution system [GHF], more than 1,000 starving people have been killed' - Juliette Touma, Unrwa At least 122 Palestinians, including 80 children, have died of starvation since Israel's blockade resumed in March, including 15 who died of malnutrition on Monday, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Meanwhile, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid at distribution sites run by the controversial GHF, in place since May and manned by Israeli soldiers and US security contractors. De Waal told MEE's live show on Tuesday that the UN is not in a position to declare famine due to Israel's obstruction of access to humanitarians and investigators who could gauge the extent of hunger. However, he said: "It is actually relatively straightforward if you are perpetrating a famine to shut out access to essential information and then say no one has declared famine. "Concealment of famine is an instrument of those who perpetrate it." De Waal added that famine is unfolding in Gaza in "a wholly predicted manner". De Waal is executive director of the World Peace Foundation, affiliated with the Fletcher School of Global Affairs at Tufts University, and the author of Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine.
Scoop
22-07-2025
- Health
- Scoop
Gaza: UN Staff Now Fainting From Hunger, Exhaustion; WHO Worker Detained
22 July 2025 'Doctors, nurses, journalists, humanitarians, among them UNRWA staff, are hungry … fainting due to hunger and exhaustion while performing their duties,' said Juliette Touma, Director of Communications with the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA. Speaking from Amman, she stressed that seeking food 'has become as deadly as the bombardments'. The development comes as the UN human rights office, OHCHR, announced on Tuesday that more than 1,000 Palestinians have now been killed by the Israeli military while trying to get food in the Strip since the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) started operating on 27 May. 'As of 21 July, we have recorded 1,054 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food,' said OHCHR spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan. '766 of them were killed in the vicinity of GHF sites and 288 near UN and other humanitarian organizations' aid convoys.' Mr. Al-Kheetan noted that the finding came from 'multiple reliable sources on the ground, including medical teams, humanitarian and human rights organizations. It is still being verified 'in line with our strict methodology.' The foundation's hubs are supported by the US and Israeli authorities and started operating in southern Gaza on 27 May, bypassing the UN and other established non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Aid relief is not a job for mercenaries 'The so-called GHF distribution scheme is a sadistic death-trap,' UNRWA's Ms. Touma said. 'Snipers open fire randomly on crowds as if they're given a license to kill.' Quoting a statement by UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini, Ms. Touma called the scheme a 'massive hunt of people in total impunity'. 'This cannot be our new norm. Humanitarian assistance is not the job of mercenaries,' she added. The UNRWA spokesperson insisted that the UN and its humanitarian partners have the expertise, experience and available resources to provide safe, dignified and at-scale assistance. 'We have proven it time and again during the last ceasefire,' she said. Living conditions in the Strip have reached a new low as prices for basic commodities have increased by around 4,000 per cent. For Gaza's inhabitants who have lost their homes and been displaced multiple times, they have no income and find themselves completely deprived of essentials. $200 for a bag of flour Ms. Touma highlighted the testimony of a colleague on the ground who had to walk for hours to buy a bag of lentils and some flour, paying almost $200 for it. On Monday, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said that a quarter of Gaza's population faces famine-like conditions. Almost 100,000 women and children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition and need treatment as soon as possible. Vital everyday items such as diapers are scarce and costly, at about $3 each. Mothers have resorted to using plastic bags instead while one father 'said that he had to cut one of his last shirts to give his daughter sanitary pads', Ms. Touma said. 'We at UNRWA have stocks of hygiene supplies, including diapers for babies and for adults waiting outside the gates of Gaza,' Ms. Touma stressed, insisting that the agency has 6,000 trucks loaded with food, medicines and hygiene supplies waiting in Egypt and in Jordan to be allowed into the enclave. Urgent ceasefire call She reiterated the UN's calls for 'a deal that would bring a ceasefire, that would release the hostages, that would bring in a standard flow of humanitarian supplies into Gaza under the management of the United Nations, including UNRWA.' Humanitarian operations in the enclave are being pushed into an 'ever-shrinking space', said World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson Tarik Jašarević. Briefing journalists in Geneva, he condemned three attacks on Monday on a building housing WHO staff in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza as well as the 'mistreatment of those sheltering there and the destruction of its main warehouse'. 'Staff and their families, including children, were exposed to grave danger and traumatised after airstrikes caused a fire and significant damage,' Mr. Jašarević said, adding that Israeli military entered the premises, 'forcing women and children to evacuate on foot' towards the coastal shelter of Al Mawasi amid active conflict. Our interview with WHO Representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, has more details Screened at gunpoint The WHO spokesperson said that staff and family members were 'handcuffed, stripped, interrogated on the spot and screened at gunpoint'. Two staff and two family members were detained and while three were later released, one WHO employee remains in detention for reasons unknown to the organization. Mr. Jašarević called for the release of the detained staff member and insisted that 'no one should be held without charges and without due process.' The latest evacuation order for the area has impacted several WHO premises and compromised its presence on the ground, 'crippling efforts to sustain a collapsing health system,' Mr. Jašarević added, and 'pushing survival further out of reach for more than two million people'. The Israeli military operation in Deir Al-Balah on Monday also caused an explosion and fire inside WHO's main warehouse, which is located within the evacuation zone in the central Gazan city, 'part of a pattern of systematic destruction of health facilities', the agency's spokesperson said. According to Gaza's health authorities, since the start of the war in October 2023, some 1,500 health workers have been killed in the Strip. Some 94 per cent of all health facilities have been damaged and half of Gaza's hospitals are 'not functional at all', Mr. Jašarević said. 'The chance to prevent loss of lives and reverse immense damage to the health system slips further out of reach every day,' he stressed. Visa denials Spotlighting further challenges to the humanitarian operation in Gaza, the WHO spokesperson pointed to an increase in the denial of visas by Israeli authorities for emergency medical teams seeking to enter the Strip since the breakdown of the latest ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on 18 March. He said that 58 international staff for the emergency medical teams, including surgeons and critical medical specialists, have been denied access. UNRWA's Ms. Touma highlighted the fact that ever since the agency's Commissioner-General was denied entry to Gaza in March 2024, he has not been allowed back into the Strip. He has also not received a visa from Israel to enter the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, for more than a year. The UNRWA spokesperson also deplored the lack of access for international media to the enclave. 'It certainly is time, if not long overdue, for international media to go into Gaza precisely to look into the facts and to help with reporting first-hand information on the horrors that people in Gaza are living through,' she said. Rapid collapse of critical lifelines UN humanitarians continue to highlight the rapid collapse of critical lifelines in Gaza amid ongoing hostilities. Local authorities said more than a dozen children and adults died from hunger in the past 24 hours, UN aid coordination office, OCHA, reported on Tuesday. 'Hospitals have admitted people in a state of severe exhaustion caused by a lack of food, and others are said to be collapsing in the streets,' it said. 'This is on top of continued reports of people being shot, killed or injured while simply trying to find food – food that is only being allowed into Gaza in quantities that are far too small.' Furthermore, in many cases where UN teams are permitted by Israel to collect supplies from closed compounds near border crossings, civilians approaching the trucks come under fire, despite repeated assurances that troops would not be present or engage. OCHA said 'this unacceptable pattern is the opposite of what facilitating humanitarian operations should look like,' underscoring that 'absolutely no one should have to risk their life to get food.'
Scoop
17-07-2025
- Health
- Scoop
Gaza: 875 People Confirmed Dead Trying To Source Food In Recent Weeks
15 July 2025 'As of 13 July, we have recorded 875 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food; 674 of them were killed in the vicinity of GHF sites,' said Thameen Al-Kheetan, OHCHR spokesperson, referencing the US-Israeli run private organization which has bypassed regular humanitarian operations. The remaining 201 victims were killed while seeking food 'on the routes of aid convoys or near aid convoys' run by the UN or UN-partners still operating in the war-shattered enclave, Mr. Al-Kheetan told journalists in Geneva. Killings linked to the controversial US and Israeli-backed aid hubs began shortly after they started operating in southern Gaza on 27 May, bypassing the UN and other established NGOs. The latest deadly incident happened at around 9am on Monday 14 July, when reports indicated that the Israeli military shelled and fired towards Palestinians seeking food at the GHF site in As Shakoush area, northwestern Rafah. According to OHCHR, two Palestinians were killed and at least nine others were injured. Some of the casualties were transported to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) hospital in Rafah. On Saturday medics there received more than 130 patients, the 'overwhelming majority' suffering from gunshot wounds and 'all responsive individuals' reporting they were attempting to access food distribution sites. Deadly hunger The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, expressed deep concerns about the continuing killing of civilians trying to access food, while deadly malnutrition spreads among children. 'Our teams on the ground - UNRWA teams and other United Nations teams - have spoken to survivors of these killings, these starving children included, who were shot at while on their way to pick up very little food,' said Juliette Touma, UNRWA Director of Communications. Speaking via video from Amman, Ms. Touma insisted that the near-total Israeli blockade of Gaza has led to babies dying of the effects of severe acute malnutrition. 'We've been banned from bringing in any humanitarian assistance into Gaza for more than four months now,' she said, before pointing to a ' significant increase' in child malnutrition since the Israeli blockade began on 2 March. Ms. Touma added: 'We have 6,000 trucks waiting in places like Egypt, like Jordan; it's from Jordan to the Gaza Strip it's a three-hour drive, right?' In addition to food supplies, these UN trucks contain other vital if basic supplies including bars of soap. ' Medicine and food are going to soon expire if we're not able to get those supplies to people in Gaza who need it most, among them one million children who are half of the population of the Gaza Strip,' Ms. Touma continued. West Bank: 'Silent war is surging' Meanwhile in the occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem, Palestinians continue to be killed in violence allegedly linked to Israeli settlers and security forces, UN agencies said. According to OHCHR, two-year-old Laila Khatib was shot in the head by Israeli security forces on 25 January while she was inside her house in Ash-Shuhada village, in Jenin. On 3 July, 61-year-old Walid Badir was shot and killed by Israeli security forces, reportedly while he was cycling back home from prayers, passing through the outskirts of the Nur Shams camp, the UN rights office continued, pointing to intensifying 'killings, attacks and harassment" of Palestinians in past weeks. 'This includes the demolition of hundreds of homes and forced mass displacement of Palestinians,' OHCHR's Mr. Al-Kheetan noted, with some 30,000 Palestinians forcibly displaced since the launch of Israel's operation 'Iron Wall' in the north of the occupied West Bank earlier this year. 'We should recall that international law is very clear about this in terms of the obligations of the occupying power,' he said. 'Bringing about a permanent demographic change inside the occupied territory may amount to a war crime and is tantamount to ethnic cleansing.' 'We continue to have a silent war that is surging, where heavy restrictions on movement continue, where poverty is increasing as people are cut off from their livelihoods and unemployment soars,' said UNRWA's Ms. Touma. With its current focus on the northern occupied West Bank, the Israeli military operation has impacted the refugee camps of Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams. 'It is causing the largest population displacement of the Palestinians in the West Bank since 1967,' Ms. Touma continued.
Time of India
16-07-2025
- Health
- Time of India
One in 10 children in its clinics are malnourished, UN Palestinian refugee agency says
Geneva: One in 10 children screened in clinics run by the United Nations refugee agency in Gaza since 2024 has been malnourished, the agency said on Tuesday. "Our health teams are confirming that malnutrition rates are increasing in Gaza, especially since the siege was tightened more than four months ago on the second of March," UNRWA 's Director of Communications, Juliette Touma, told reporters in Geneva via a video link from Amman, Jordan. Since January 2024, UNRWA said it had screened more than 240,000 boys and girls under the age of five in its clinics, adding that before the war, acute malnutrition was rarely seen in the Gaza Strip. "One nurse that we spoke to told us that in the past, he only saw these cases of malnutrition in textbooks and documentaries," Touma said. "Medicine, nutrition supplies, hygiene material, fuel are all rapidly running out," Touma said. On May 19, Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade on Gaza, allowing limited U.N. deliveries to resume. However, UNRWA continues to be banned from bringing aid into the enclave. COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, said that it has helped facilitate 67,000 food trucks to enter Gaza, delivering 1.5 million tons of food, including infant formula and baby food. It said that about 2,000 tons of baby food have been brought into Gaza through the crossings in recent weeks, following requests by international aid organizations. Israel and the United States have accused Palestinian militant group Hamas of stealing from U.N.-led aid operations - which Hamas denies. They have instead set up the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, using private U.S. security and logistics firms to transport aid to distribution hubs, which the U.N. has refused to work with.
Gulf Today
16-07-2025
- Health
- Gulf Today
One in 10 Gazan children screened in UNRWA clinics malnourished
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) warned on Tuesday of rising malnutrition rates among children in the Gaza Strip, confirming that one in every ten children is currently malnourished, according to data from its clinics and medical points across the strip. During a press briefing in Geneva, UNRWA's Director of Communications Juliette Touma said malnutrition rates have increased in Gaza, especially since the siege tightened four months ago, adding that UNRWA health teams have screened over 240,000 boys and girls across the Gaza Strip since January warned that therapeutic supplies to combat malnutrition among children are almost non-existent as UNRWA is facing severe shortages in medicines, nutritional supplies, fuel and hygiene materials, confirming that the agency ran out of food stocks late April. She noted that nearly 60 per cent of essential medicines have depleted from UNRWA's warehouses since Israeli forces banned the agency from bringing in any humanitarian aid, including food and medicines, on March 2. Palestinian mother Israa Abu Haleeb looks after her five-month-old daughter, Zainab, who is diagnosed with malnutrition, according to medics, at Nasser Hospital. Reuters On the Israeli aggression on the occupied West Bank, Touma described it as a silent war that continues to escalate in parallel with what is happening in Gaza, particularly amid severe restrictions on freedom of movement, imposed by the Israeli forces, rising poverty and unemployment due to loss of livelihoods. Palestinian children queue for a portion of hot food distributed by a charity kitchen at the Nuseirat refugee camp. AFP Touma stressed that despite these challenges, UNRWA continues its operations across the occupied Palestinian territory through a 14,000-strong local workforce, delivering essential services, particularly in the fields of healthcare and education, to Palestinian refugees and others in need. WAM
