UN refuses to join Israel’s Gaza aid mechanism that ‘breaches humanitarian principles’

The acting UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Sigrid Kaag, has said that the United Nations will not take part in any mechanism for delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza if it violates core humanitarian principles, especially neutrality and independence.

In her briefing to the UN Security Council yesterday, Kaag warned that civilians in the enclave are facing an unprecedented humanitarian disaster, stressing: “Israel must halt its devastating strikes on civilian life and infrastructure.”

She warned that the situation in Gaza requires urgent international action beyond statements and symbolic calls.

“Civilians in Gaza have lost hope. Instead of saying ‘goodbye’, Palestinians in Gaza now say, ‘see you in heaven’. Death is their companion. It’s not life, it’s not hope.” She added: “The people of Gaza deserve more than survival. They deserve a future full of dignity and hope.”

Kaag further cautioned that the current humanitarian aid is far from enough to meet the basic needs of over two million people who are on the brink of famine. She described this insufficient aid as a “lifeboat after the ship has sunk”.

She also expressed deep concern about rising tensions in the occupied West Bank, pointing to the accelerating pace of settlement expansion and land confiscation, as well as increasing settler violence. She warned that these developments are leading to “de facto annexation,” which “If not reversed, this will make the two-State solution physically impossible.”

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