The United Nations has been forced to suspend its aid operations in Gaza due to new evacuation orders from Israel for Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, a senior UN official said.
At a news conference Monday at U.N. headquarters in New York, the official said: “We are not in a position to act today under the current conditions.”
The official stressed that the UN had transferred its main command operations for the Gaza Strip and most UN personnel to Deir el-Balah after Israel ordered the evacuation of Rafah in southern Gaza in May.
“Where do we go from here?” the official asked, adding that U.N. staff had had to be moved so quickly that some equipment had been left behind.
“We are not leaving Gaza because people need us. We are trying to balance the needs of the population with the need for security of UN personnel,” the official stressed.
Speaking after the official’s briefing, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, is able to continue operating because it is integrated into the population and that the problem the official described is the transfer of aid through the Palestinian enclave.
“We are talking about UNRWA being embedded in some places,” Dujarric said. “So if they are there and they are able to help, they will help and distribute. (But) we (other UN agencies) are not able to move people from point A to point B. We are not able to go and pick people up.”
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Gabriel Elizondo said from UN headquarters that the situation had become very difficult for the UN with repeated evacuation orders from the Israeli army in central Gaza disrupting UN humanitarian aid operations.
“The senior official said they are pushing the limits of their own risk assessment. He said they have 90 employees who have been moved to safe houses in al-Mawasi. … Their 140 international employees are scrambling to find housing. … Some are having to sleep in their cars,” Elizondo said.
“This (suspension of aid) is temporary, … but for now, due to practical measures, they cannot do it,” Elizondo added.
Displacement of Palestinians
The Israeli military on Sunday issued its final evacuation orders for Deir el-Balah, which had previously been classified as a safe area, and confirmed that it was expanding a ground offensive to the outskirts of Deir el-Balah.
Evacuation orders force Palestinians to leave their homes and places of refuge without knowing when or if they will be able to return.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) also said its food distribution centres and community kitchens in Gaza were increasingly disrupted by widening Israeli evacuation orders.
“WFP’s operations are severely hampered by the escalating conflict, limited border crossing points and damaged roads. Over the past two months, amid continued catastrophic hunger, WFP has had to reduce the contents of food parcels in Gaza as aid flows have declined and supplies have become scarce,” the organization said.
Sam Rose, UNRWA’s senior field director, said the organization was still managing to provide health and other services on Monday, but noted that while UNRWA operates differently from the rest of the UN system, it still faces the same challenges.
“We are being squeezed into smaller and smaller areas of Gaza,” he told reporters on Monday.
“The humanitarian zone declared by Israel has shrunk. It now covers 11% of the entire Gaza Strip. But this is not 11% of habitable land, suitable for services and life.”
Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hind Khoudary said the evacuation orders have made living conditions miserable for all.
“Everyone is in a state of panic and frustration. We are talking about more than a million people in the central area and those who have been crammed into Deir el-Balah,” she said.
“UN employees are humanitarian workers and they have not been given any protection. That is why they have not been able to continue their operations,” she noted, adding that the suspension of UN aid will deeply affect the people of Gaza who need their help.
Human rights groups and international observers have criticized the evacuation orders and the resulting mass suffering.
Palestinians often find themselves attacked by Israel while en route to these “safe areas” as well as after reaching their destination.
A Palestinian man said he did not know where he and his sick son would sleep in the coming days due to the evacuation orders.
“On the street! Imagine. I am on the street with my six children,” Rasim al-Attab told Tel Aviv Tribune, sitting in the hospital courtyard with his son.
“We have been displaced four times: from northern Gaza, from Khan Younis, from Deir el-Balah. Nobody takes care of us,” he said.
“People want to live a normal life. They look for money and instead they die on the streets.”
