Antonio Guterres says the international body will not cooperate, rejecting Israeli proof that aid has been stolen by Hamas.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
The head of the United Nations rejected on Tuesday Israel’s plan to take charge of distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza so that Hamas will be unable to steal it as it has throughout the war.
“The Israeli authorities’ newly proposed ‘authorization mechanisms’ for aid delivery risk further controlling and callously limiting aid down to the last calorie and grain of flour,” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres charged at a journalists’ briefing.
The UN would not cooperate in such a case, he said.
“Let me be clear: We will not participate in any arrangement that does not fully respect the humanitarian principles: humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality,” he said.
Israel had closed the entry points into Gaza on March 2, after Hamas rejected an American plan to extend a tenuous ceasefire arrangement to free more hostages under the same conditions as the 33 who had just been released over the course of some six weeks in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian security prisoners and thousands of tons of aid.
It said that the Gazans had enough food for four months, and that stopping aid delivery was a pressure tactic it needed to use – along with cutting off electricity on March 10 – to convince Hamas to release the remaining 59 hostages it and other terror groups were holding, 22-24 of whom are still believed to be alive.
The first hostage deal, in which over 100 hostages were freed, came seven weeks into the war after Israel had not allowed any aid into the Strip.
UN agencies have disputed the Israeli claim that there is enough food in Gaza, with UNRWA saying on Monday, “Stocks are getting low and the situation is becoming desperate,” and the UN World Food Program reporting on Friday that its 25 subsidized bakeries have had to close.
Israel said it would be willing to reopen the gates now if the IDF could carry out the plan it has presented to the UN and others, which ensures that the aid would go to those truly in need. instead of being stolen by the terrorist organization that uses it to both feed its fighters and earn hundreds of millions of dollars by selling at black market prices that which it had been given for free.
Although Jerusalem has provided video and other proof of Hamas stealing aid, Guterres has rejected the theft allegations and simply blamed Israel for not allowing food, water and medicines in, saying it was breaking international law by its actions.
He blamed Israel again Tuesday, saying Israel has “unequivocal obligations” as an “occupying power” to ensure the basic health of the Gazan population.
Israel’s Supreme Court, which usually leans to the progressive side, recently rejected this claim, as Hamas is still in charge of the coastal enclave, not Israel, despite the IDF’s efforts over the last 18 months.
Although he did call on Tuesday for the “immediate and unconditional release of all hostages,” the UN chief only put the onus on Israel for breaking the ceasefire and used inflammatory language in describing the renewed fighting, saying, “Gaza is a killing field – and civilians are in an endless death loop.”
Guterres has been repeatedly criticized by Jerusalem for an obvious anti-Israel bias ever since he justified Hamas’ massacre of 1,200 people and abduction of 251 Israelis and foreign nationals on October 7, 2023 by saying immediately afterwards that the attack “did not happen in a vacuum.”