United Nations
Reuters
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday called for independent investigations into the deaths of all 196 aid workers killed in the Gaza Strip during the Israel-Hamas war and said he hopes Israel quickly and effectively boosts aid access.
Global outrage at the humanitarian crisis in the occupied Palestinian territory of 2.3 million people escalated after three Israeli airstrikes on Monday killed seven people working for US-based food charity World Central Kitchen.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaking on Friday, 5th April. PICTURE: Reuters/Screenshot
Israel is retaliating against Hamas in Gaza over a deadly 7th October attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group, saying they killed some 1,200 people and took more than 250 people hostage. Gaza health authorities say Israel has killed more than 33,000 people since.
The Israeli military on Friday said its inquiry into the strikes on the aid convoy found serious errors and breaches of procedure.
“The Israeli Government has acknowledged mistakes,” Guterres said. “But the essential problem is not who made the mistakes, it is the military strategy and procedures in place that allow for those mistakes to multiply time and time again.”
“Fixing those failures requires independent investigations and meaningful and measurable changes on the ground,” he said, without specifying who should conduct the investigations. “196 humanitarian workers have been killed and we want to know why each one of them was killed.”
The 15-member UN Security Council met on Friday to discuss an imminent famine in Gaza and the attacks on aid workers.
“Were we meeting in the north of Gaza, all 15 of us would be skipping meals,” said Slovenia’s UN Ambassador Samuel Zbogar. “10 of us would go entire days and nights without eating. Half of us would be in desperate need of humanitarian aid.”
Addressing the council, senior UN aid official Ramesh Rajasingham called on all countries to help stop violations of humanitarian law – “through diplomatic and economic pressure, conditioning arms exports on compliance with the rules of war, and cooperation in combating impunity.”
“Entirely avoidable”
Britain’s UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward said aid workers should never be targeted, adding: “Israel must do much more to protect them and to ensure their safety so they can deliver urgently needed lifesaving humanitarian assistance.”
Israel has approved reopening the Erez crossing into northern Gaza and temporary use of Ashdod port in southern Israel after US President Joe Biden demanded steps to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying conditions could be placed on US support for Israel if it did not act.
“When the gates to aid are closed, the doors to starvation are opened. More than half the population – over a million people – are facing catastrophic hunger. Children in Gaza today are dying for lack of food and water,” Guterres told reporters.
“This is incomprehensible, and entirely avoidable,” he said.
A general view of the Erez Crossing with the Gaza Strip in the background after the Israeli cabinet approved the reopening of the crossing into northern Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as seen from southern Israel, on 5th April, 2024. PICTURE: Rueters/Hannah McKay
Guterres also said he was “deeply troubled” by reports that the Israeli military has been using artificial intelligence to help identify bombing targets in Gaza. The Israeli military denies AI was used to identify suspected extremists and targets.
“No part of life and death decisions which impact entire families should be delegated to the cold calculation of algorithms,” Guterres said.
“Over the last six months, the Israeli military campaign has brought relentless death and destruction to Palestinians in Gaza,” Guterres added. “Lives are shattered. Respect for international humanitarian law is in tatters.”
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday that the United States welcomes Israel’s latest efforts to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, but said success would be measured in results in improving the situation on the ground.
“Really the proof is in the results, and we will see those unfold in the coming days, in the coming weeks,” Blinken said, speaking alongside EU leaders in Belgium.
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President Joe Biden threatened on Thursday to condition support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza on it taking concrete steps to protect aid workers and civilians.
The move, prompted by an Israeli attack that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers, is the first time the Biden administration has sought to leverage US aid to influence Israeli military behaviour.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Israel also needed to reverse what it called a ban on the agency reaching northern Gaza with food supplies.
“The clock is ticking fast towards famine and UNRWA must be allowed to do its work, and reach the north on a regular basis with food and nutrition supplies,” UNRWA communications director Juliette Touma said.
Asked on Israel’s action after Biden’s shift in position, Blinken told journalists Washington will be “closely looking” at specific metrics such as the number of trucks making their way into the Gaza strip, the distribution of supplies inside the enclave, especially in the north that has been largely cut off from aid since the war began.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends the American Corner Lekki Ribbon Cutting at 21st Century Technologies in Lagos, Nigeria, on 24th January, 2024. PICTURE: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Pool via Reuters/File photo
Blinken said the United States was particularly concerned by “indicators of potential famine”.
“We’ll be looking closely at those to see that they’re reversed,” he said.
Repeating a US call for Israel to investigate the strike on the aid workers, Blinken said Washington wanted to see accountability for the attack.
Blinken said a “horrific number” of innocent civilians had been killed in the war, and Israel needed to make sure the population is protected from its strikes by “maximising every effort to protect civilians.”
“We just can’t have so many people caught in the crossfire killed injured going forward,” he added.
