Briefing reporters, Ms. Touma highlighted that although the October 3 ceasefire agreement had given families some respite, “people continue to die, day after day.”
He said that Gaza highly vulnerable people simply “cannot wait” for a reconstruction plan to take shape – one of the stated goals of the US-led Peace Board. “They need supplies at the same time, not just services,” he stressed.
UNRWA Commitment
Echoing those concerns, the UN agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, underlined its key and long-standing role in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including Gaza. This mission was entrusted to UNRWA by the UN Member States at the General Assembly of the world organization in December 1949.
“We are the largest United Nations agency operating in the Gaza Strip,” said Jonathan Fowler, UNRWA Senior Communications Manager. “We must be able to continue doing our jobs; that is very clear.”
peace meeting
While it remains unclear exactly how the UN will support the Peace Board launched by President Trump in Davos on Thursday, Security Council Resolution 2803 from last November that welcomed its creation highlighted the importance of working with “cooperating organizations”, including the United Nations.
“We are very committed to doing everything possible to ensure the full implementation of Security Council Resolution 2803,” said Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva. “The UN has a role there: leading the delivery of humanitarian aid, something we have been doing for a long time and will continue to do to the best of our ability.”
Since Sunday, humanitarian partners providing emergency shelter assistance have reached more than 13,000 homes in Gaza, distributing hundreds of tents and thousands of tarps, the aid coordination office, OCHA, said in its latest update.
Obstacles to distribution in Gaza persist
The UN office noted that “capacity and funding constraints” have limited support to only about 40 percent of the 970 existing displacement sites across the Strip.
Healthcare needs also remain enormous across Gaza, where providers like UNRWA try to help some 15,000 patients a day, despite numerous challenges.
“Before the start of the war we had 22 clinics operating throughout the Gaza Strip; now we are down to half a dozen,” Mr. Fowler said. “And we have mobile health teams operating, but in incredibly complicated circumstances.”
Several UNRWA facilities are located behind the so-called Yellow Line – a series of concrete blocks installed by the Israeli authorities that separates Gazans from the Israel Defense Forces – envisaged in the three-step Gaza peace plan.
“That makes it incredibly difficult to do our jobs and many of our locations have been severely damaged or even completely destroyed,” Mr Fowler continued. “On top of that, the Israeli authorities continue to prohibit us from bringing our own supplies.”
UNRWA facilities were “assaulted”
Returning to the destruction of the UNRWA headquarters in East Jerusalem on Tuesday, Fowler described how visiting diplomats were caught up in the dramatic events as Israeli forces “stormed and demolished” buildings in the complex and fired tear gas. “This is a United Nations compound, so it is an attack on the United Nations,” he told reporters.
Training center threat
Highlighting concerns that the UNRWA-supported Kalandia Training Center could be closed “within days”, Mr Fowler explained that it mainly helped low-income families acquire the skills they needed to earn a living: “If the center were to be forcibly closed – and we fear this could happen within days – there is no educational alternative for these students.”
The UN agency remains deeply concerned about developments in the occupied West Bank, a year after Israeli forces launched Operation Iron Wall.
“This led to the mass displacement of people from three camps in the northern West Bank,” Fletcher explained, referring to the refugee settlements of Jenin, Nur Shams and Tulkarem.
Demographic change
“The camps are being progressively demolished by the Israeli army. Therefore, we are changing the facts on the ground, changing the topography and the demographics of these large communities,” Mr. Fowler insisted.