Secretary General of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), Christopher Lockyear has decried the current state of inaccessibility to humanitarian aid in the besieged enclave of Gaza.
He likened the humanitarian response in Gaza currently to an illusion.
“A convenient illusion that perpetuates a narrative that this war is being waged in line with international laws,” he added.
Lockyear also said that medical teams in Gaza have come up with a new acronym to reflect the dire situation on the ground; WCNSF which stands for “wounded child, no surviving family.”
He asserted that children who do survive this war will not only bear the visible wounds of traumatic injuries, but the invisible ones too.
“Those of repeated displacements, constant fear and witnessing family members literally dismembered before their eyes,” he said.
Lockyear added that these “psychological injuries have led children as young as five to tell us that they would prefer to die” than to witness the horrors of Israel’s war.
Moreover, Lockyear criticised repeated vetoes by the US of resolutions calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza where more than 29,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks since October 7.
He noted, “We are appalled by the willingness of the United States to use its powers as a permanent council member to obstruct efforts to adopt the most evident of resolutions, one demanding an immediate and sustained ceasefire.”
“For 138 days, we have watched the systematic obliteration of a health system we have supported for decades. We have watched our patients and our colleagues be killed and maimed. This situation is the culmination of a war Israel is waging on the entire population of the Gaza Strip, a war of collective punishments, a war without rules, a war at all costs.”
Christopher Lockyear
Lazzarini Reveals Israeli Efforts To “Dismantle” UNRWA
Meanwhile, UNRWA Chief, Philippe Lazzarini told the President of the UN General Assembly that his organisation has come under a “concerted effort” by Israeli officials who want to see “the dismantling” of the refugee agency for Palestinians.
In a letter in which he describes UNRWA reaching a “breaking point,” Lazzarini revealed that Israel’s land authority has ordered UNRWA to vacate a vocational training centre in occupied East Jerusalem and pay a fee of more than $4.5m for its use.
The UNRWA chief pointed out that the centre was “assigned to UNRWA by Jordan in 1952.”
Lazzarini said that there has also been an attempt by an Israeli Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem to “evict UNRWA from its HQ of 75 years in East Jerusalem.”
He outlined other forms of harassment such as entry visas for international staff being limited to spans of just one or two months, Israel’s Finance Minister threatening to revoke UNRWA’s tax exemption privileges, an Israeli bank blocked an UNRWA account, and Israeli customs officials suspended shipments of the agency’s goods, among other actions.
Last month, several donor countries, mostly Western, halted funding to the Palestinian refugee agency after Israel claimed, but failed to provide evidence, that some of UNWRA’s staff members took part in the October 7 attacks.
Also on Friday, seven Israeli human rights organisations issued a joint call to restore funding to UNRWA so the agency can continue its work in Gaza.
The organisations include Doctors for Human Rights, B’Tselem, Breaking the Silence, Gisha, City of Nations, Checkpoint Watch, and Fighters for Peace.
“Doubts about the involvement of UNRWA employees in the attack on Israel are very serious, but they do not justify the punitive freeze on the Agency’s funding,” the organisations said in a statement.
They added, “The actions of the few must not be allowed to cast a shadow on the vital humanitarian work of UNRWA.”
