New York, May 14, (dpa/GNA) – UN aid coordinator Tom Fletcher on Tuesday called on the international community to take urgent action on Gaza.
No aid had entered Gaza for more than 10 weeks and all 2.1 million people there faced famine, Fletcher told a UN Security Council briefing.
He asked the international community to reflect on what they will tell future generations about their actions taken “to stop the 21st century atrocity to which we bear daily witness in Gaza.”
“Will you act – decisively – to prevent genocide and to ensure respect for international humanitarian law? Or will you say instead, ‘we did all we could?'”
The UN and its partners were “desperate” to resume delivering aid across Gaza, but Israel continued denying access, Fletcher said.
“We can save hundreds of thousands of survivors. We have rigorous mechanisms to ensure our aid gets to civilians, and not to Hamas,” he added.
“But Israel denies us access, placing the objective of depopulating Gaza before the lives of civilians.”
Fletcher called for Israel to stop killing and injuring civilians and to lift the humanitarian blockade. He also urged Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups to release hostages and to stop putting civilians at risk during military operations.
“And for those who will not survive what we fear is coming – in plain sight – it will be no consolation to know that future generations will hold us in this chamber to account. But they will,” he said.
“And, if we have not seriously done ‘all we could’, we should fear that judgement.”
GNA
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