Undercover operations by the UN in the Gaza residential areas have been suspended for 48 working hours since when that fatal attack took place, leaving seven staff members of the NGO World Central Kitchen. As a result of the decision based on these risks, not only service personnel but also communities are significantly affected. The UN World Food Programme team is operating during the day, providing, for example, food aid delivery through other countries’ borders to Gaza City located in the north.
World Help Central Kitchen and other charities stopping their aid operations have a “double impact” in the Gaza Strip. This means that the persons, which are at the same time the Abbas’ donors and the humanitarian workers, get at the same time. On Tuesday, UN spokesperson Stephan Dujrakt announced the frightful scenario that is about to unfold: people who are completely dependent on these organizations for their assistance are going to suffer from these cuts, while the affected humanitarian workers will likely experience psychological trauma due to the fact that many of them are risking their lives every day while bringing aid to the affected.
The occurrence of disaster happened after a joint convoy of World Central Kitchen staff, which had included both local and foreign staff members, was struck by shelling, which was carried out by the Israeli aeroplanes when this staff was departing from their warehouse in central Gaza. The Israeli authorities have marked the mistake as a “fatal misrecognition” that was caused because of an inaccurate identification and thus set up a humanitarian command centre to enhance coordination on the aspect of aid distribution.
In addition, the bombardment of Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City calls for introspection, especially. The WHO has said that there were over 900 attacks on healthcare facilities in the region, and that resulted in casualties. Temporarily, however, now few at all of Gaze’s hospitals are just run partially.
International condemnation does not lag far behind, being echoed by two UN-appointed experts who are calling immediately the international community in retribution for the destruction and killings of Al-Shifa Hospital. They did so by laying particular stress on the forbiddenness of encirclement and demolition of hospitals in addition to not being towed or menaced by healthcare workers and the civilian population alike at the international level. The panellists sought the UN member countries to be involved and were sad about the civilians injured by Israeli security forces.
