The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question - Security Council, 9914th meeting

‘Israel deliberately, unashamedly imposing inhumane conditions’ on civilians in Gaza, Under-Secretary-General tells Security Council, as risk of famine grows.

• Categories: Meetings & Events / Security Council
• Video Length: 02:36:17
• Production Date: 13 May 2025
• Asset Language: Arabic; English; French; Russian; Spanish; Chinese; Original
• Personal Subject: THOMAS FLETCHER
• Corporate Name: FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION - FAO; UNITED NATIONS OFFICE FOR THE COORDINATION OF HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS - OCHA
• Subject Topical: MIDDLE EAST SITUATION; PALESTINE QUESTION; EMERGENCY RELIEF; HUMANITARIAN CRISIS; HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE; AID PROGRAMMES; HUNGER; DISPLACED PERSONS; INTERNATIONAL LAW; FOOD SHORTAGE; FOOD SUPPLY; RELIEF CORRIDORS
• Geographic Subject: MIDDLE EAST; PALESTINE; GAZA; ISRAEL
• MAMS Id: 3395631
• Parent Id: 3394898

Description

The United Nations top humanitarian official, briefing the Security Council today on the grim reality across the Gaza Strip, asked those present to reflect on what they will tell future generations when asked what they did to stop the “twenty-first-century atrocity” unfolding daily before the eyes of the world. 

“Israel is deliberately and unashamedly imposing inhumane conditions on civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” stated Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. Nothing has entered Gaza for more than 10 weeks, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been forcibly displaced and the 2.1 million Palestinians in the Strip face the risk of famine. Also reporting that the few hospitals that have somehow survived bombardment are overwhelmed, he said: “I can tell you, from having visited what’s left of Gaza’s medical system, that death on this scale has a sound and a smell that does not leave you.” 

He underscored that humanitarians have a single ask for the Council: “Let us work.” The UN and its partners are “desperate” to resume aid across Gaza at scale, he stressed, adding “we have a plan”, “we have shown we can deliver” and “we have life-saving supplies ready at the borders”. And, while he pointed out that “rigorous” mechanisms are in place to ensure aid gets to civilians — not Hamas — he said: “Israel denies us access, placing their objective of depopulating Gaza before the lives of civilians.” Further, he stressed that the recently proposed, Israeli-designed distribution modality “is not the answer”; rather, it “makes starvation a bargaining chip” and constitutes “a fig leaf for further violence and displacement”. 

“There is, I fear, a broader context here,” he observed, noting that Palestinian journalists, civil society and individuals have “live-streamed their destruction to the world” for the past 19 months. During this time, aid workers have been the only international civilian presence in Gaza. “We are your eyes and ears,” he said. Recalling briefings to the Council on the deliberate obstruction of aid operations and the systematic dismantling of Palestinian life in Gaza, he said that, while the International Court of Justice will weigh such testimony when it considers whether a genocide is occurring in Gaza, “it will be too late”. 

Stating that this degradation of international law is “corrosive and infectious”, he called on the Council to demand an end to it and insist on accountability; on Israel to stop killing civilians and lift the brutal blockade; and on Hamas and other armed groups to release all hostages immediately and cease putting civilians at risk during military operations. “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,” he observed, underscoring: “But they will.” 

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S/PV.9914