Acting UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Joyce Msuya. UN Security Council meeting on Gaza: situation in the sector is “more than desperate” Peace and security
The situation in Gaza is “more than desperate”. This was stated by Acting UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Joyce Msuya at a meeting of the UN Security Council dedicated to what is happening in the Palestinian enclave.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, she said, more than 40,000 residents of the enclave have been killed and more than 93,000 wounded, the majority of them women and children. Some 17,000 Palestinian children have been left unattended or separated from their relatives and caregivers. There are growing reports of abuses against Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Shooting of convoys
“The already difficult challenges facing the humanitarian response system are compounded by unprecedented difficulties,” Joyce Msuya continued. “Our convoys have been hit several times over the past week. We have lost offices and warehouses, and limited supplies of humanitarian aid continue to dwindle.”
The acting UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs recalled that two days ago, World Food Programme staff were shot at in their UN-marked vehicle and survived by pure luck.
“We cannot plan more than 24 hours ahead because it is difficult for us to know what supplies we will receive and when, and where we can then deliver them,” Joyce Msuya said. “The lives of 2.1 million people cannot depend on just a stroke of luck.”
What the world has seen in Gaza over the past 11 months, she said, calls into question the commitment of the parties involved to the international legal order that was designed to prevent such tragedies.
“It makes us wonder what has happened to our basic sense of humanity?,” Joyce Msuya said.
WHO Deputy Director-General Mike Ryan (on screen).
Humanitarian pauses for polio vaccination
The World Health Organization has welcomed the commitment to impose humanitarian pauses in areas of Gaza and suspend evacuation orders to allow for a two-phase polio vaccination campaign due to begin on 1 September 2024. WHO Deputy Director-General Mike Ryan made the announcement at the meeting.
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As of August 25, Dr. Ryan said, only 44 percent of the 132 primary health care facilities in Gaza were functioning. Only 17 of the 36 hospitals were providing health services, and all of them were only partially functioning. The work of health facilities is hampered by physical damage, lack of fuel, limited supplies of medicines and loss of staff.