RTL Today – As Gaza war rages, UN aid official questions world’s ‘humanity’

A senior United Nations aid official questioned on Thursday that “our basic humanity has disappeared” as fighting rages in Gaza and humanitarian operations struggle.

Joyce Msuya, acting head of the UN humanitarian office (OCHA), said: “We cannot plan more than 24 hours in advance because it is difficult to know what supplies we will have, when we will get them or where we will be able to send them.”

“The civilian population is hungry, thirsty, sick and homeless. The suffering they endure is beyond human endurance,” she told the Security Council.

Msuya’s comments came after the United Nations was forced on Monday to halt aid deliveries and aid workers in Gaza due to new Israeli evacuation orders for the Deir el Balah area, which has become a hub for aid workers.

“(Israel) has ordered the evacuation of more than 88% of the Gaza Strip at a certain point in time,” Msuya said, adding that civilians were “in a state of limbo” being forced into an area equivalent to just 11% of the Strip.

She added: “The evacuation order appears to violate the requirements of international humanitarian law.”

Israel’s war with the Palestinian militant group Hamas has come under increasing scrutiny as the civilian death toll mounts, but international powers including the United States have so far failed to help negotiate a ceasefire.

The current fighting was sparked by a Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, Israel’s retaliatory military operations have killed at least 40,602 people in Gaza. The United Nations Human Rights Office said most of the dead were women and children.

“What we have seen and heard over the past 11 months … has cast doubt on the world’s commitment to the international legal order that is designed to prevent these tragedies,” Msuya said.

“It forces us to ask ourselves: What has become of our basic sense of humanity?”

Msuya called on the Security Council and the international community to use their influence to end the war and urged the release of the hostages and “a lasting ceasefire in Gaza.”