UN announces suspension of aid to Israel in Gaza Strip without improving security measures

WASHINGTON – Top U.N. officials have warned Israel that they will halt the world body’s aid efforts in Gaza unless Israel takes urgent steps to better protect humanitarian workers, two U.N. officials said Tuesday. The ultimatum is the latest in a series of U.N. measures calling on Israel to do more to protect aid efforts from attacks by its forces and to stem the growing lawlessness that is hampering humanitarian workers.

A United Nations letter to Israeli officials this month said Israel must, among other things, provide U.N. staff with a way to communicate directly with Israeli troops on the ground in Gaza, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing negotiations with Israeli officials.

UN officials said there was no final decision yet on suspending operations in the Gaza Strip and talks with the Israelis were ongoing.

UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric told reporters in New York that UN humanitarian coordinator Muhannad Hadi wrote to the Israeli military on June 17 and that UN Undersecretary for Security Gilles Michaud spoke to Israeli military officials on Monday.

Dujarric described conditions for aid workers in the area as “increasingly unbearable.” But he said the UN was “conducting all its contacts” with the Israelis to resolve the problems, noting that “the UN will not turn its back on the people of Gaza.”

U.S. officials are talking with the U.N. and the Israeli military to try to address the U.N.’s concerns, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters on Tuesday. Asked if the U.S. had received any commitments from Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who is visiting this week for talks with Biden administration officials, Miller said: “We’ve talked through a number of specific things that we want to see resolved in terms of the humanitarian situation and received a commitment to continue to work on them.”

The Israeli army declined to comment on the UN warning, and the Israeli Defense Ministry did not respond to requests for comment. The army claims it is trying to facilitate aid deliveries and accuses Hamas of disrupting them. On Tuesday, it said the militant group fired a projectile at the humanitarian route near a UNICEF aid convoy.

Israel has previously acknowledged some military strikes against humanitarian workers, including an attack in April that killed seven World Central Kitchen workers, but has denied allegations of further attacks.

For security reasons, the United Nations World Food Programme has already suspended aid deliveries from a pier built in the United States to deliver food and other emergency supplies to Palestinians who are at risk of starvation in the Gaza Strip in the war between Israel and Hamas, which has been going on for more than eight months.

UN and other aid agencies have complained for months that they have no way to communicate quickly and directly with Israeli forces on the ground. This runs counter to standard procedures – known as “deconfliction” – used in conflict zones around the world to protect aid workers from attacks by militants. Aid agencies say Israel’s process for coordinating aid work requires them to communicate with an agency within the military instead.

In their letter to Israeli officials, the United Nations listed, among other things, the provision of communications and protective equipment for aid workers as obligations that Israel must fulfill so that aid efforts in the Gaza Strip can continue, the two UN officials say.

Miller said the biggest problems currently blocking aid deliveries in Gaza are the theft of aid from trucks and other criminal attacks, rather than attacks by Israeli forces on aid workers or the seizure of aid convoys by Hamas.

“That’s why we’re working with the UN and Israel to find a solution to this problem,” Miller told reporters. That includes ensuring that aid workers “have radios and other communication devices so they can communicate with each other and move around Gaza safely.”

The UN and other humanitarian organizations have also complained about the increasing crime in Gaza and called on Israel to do more to improve security against attacks and theft. The lawlessness has prevented Israel from holding a daily pause in fighting to allow aid to enter southern Gaza. Humanitarian representatives report that armed groups regularly block convoys, attack drivers at gunpoint and rummage through their cargo.

In addition, “despite conflict, our compound has been hit by rockets,” said Steve Taravella, a spokesman for the World Food Programme, one of the main aid agencies in Gaza. He was not among those who confirmed the UN’s threat to suspend its operations in the entire area. “WFP camps have been caught in the crossfire twice in the last two weeks.”

Humanitarian workers said the situation for civilians and aid workers has worsened since early May, when Israel launched an offensive on the southern town of Rafah, where many aid groups were based. The operation has paralyzed the border crossing that was once the main one for food and other aid.

Aid workers trying to get supplies through the main remaining crossing, Kerem Shalom, face dangers from fighting, damaged roads, unexploded ordnance and Israeli restrictions, including waits of five or more hours a day at checkpoints, Taravella said.

“Restoring order is critical for an effective humanitarian response that meets increasing needs. UN agencies and others need a safe environment to access people and scale up their assistance,” he said.

Israeli officials say the problems in Kerem Shalom are due to inadequate UN logistics.

Separately, the United Nations has suspended cooperation with the US-built pier since June 9, a day after the Israeli military used the area around the pier for a hostage rescue in which over 270 Palestinians were killed.

While US and Israeli officials said no part of the pier was used in the attack on the four hostages kidnapped by Hamas, UN officials said any impression in Gaza that the project was used in the Israeli military operation could jeopardise their relief work.

The UN has completed a security assessment of the pier operation following the raid but has not yet made a decision on resuming deliveries of aid arriving by sea, said a humanitarian official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details that have not yet been made public.

Speaking to reporters traveling with a U.S. delegation to Botswana for a meeting of defense ministers on Tuesday, a U.S. Agency for International Development official expressed optimism that aid deliveries from the pier would eventually resume.

“I think it’s a matter of time before the Israeli military and the Israeli government can provide the assurances that the UN is currently demanding in terms of conflict prevention and security,” said Isobel Coleman, deputy director of USAID, who is working with the World Food Programme to distribute aid from the pier.

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Magdy reported from Cairo. AP reporters Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Lolita C. Baldor in Gaborone, Botswana, contributed.