UN official: Land route vital for Gaza aid deliveries

UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator Sigrid Kaag said yesterday that the maritime corridor can never be a substitute for land transportation of vital humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip.

Kaag told members of the UN Security Council in New York: “Land routes are the only way to bring in the bulk of supplies needed.”

Warning that “communicable diseases threaten to sweep through Gaza,” Kaag said summer is setting in and temperatures are rising, leading to additional medical worries, while “the health infrastructure in Gaza has been decimated. The few hospitals still standing struggle to operate due to severe shortages of supplies and frequent power outages.”

Though the sea corridor from Cyprus can help alleviate some of the humanitarian needs of residents of the Strip, Kaag said, “it can never be a substitute for delivery by land.”

She added that member states “have indicated their intent to phase out” air drops to Gaza “in conjunction with the scaling up of assistance via land and sea.”

Since it launched its deadly bombing campaign in Gaza in October last year, Israel has restricted humanitarian aid deliveries to the Strip causing a “man-made famine”. UN officials and human rights experts have warned that Israel may be committing a “war crime” by using “starvation” as a weapon.

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