With a large protest planned on Saturday in Gaza, and border
shootings by Israeli security forces which have left nearly 200
Palestinians dead over the past year, the UN’s top humanitarian
official in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (oPt), Jamie
McGoldrick, on Friday called for calm from all
sides to prevent further bloodshed.
In almost a year since weekly rallies began – known as the “Great
March of Return and the Breaking of the Siege” – 195
Palestinians, including some 40 children, have been killed by
Israeli fire near the border fence, Mr McGoldrick said in a
written appeal.
“There has been a staggering loss of life and injury in the Gaza
Strip,” he added. “Among the most tragic impacts have been the
deaths and injury of children.”
The development follows this week’s rocket and airstrike
exchanges between Hamas militants in Gaza, and Israel, that
UN Special Coordinator for
the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov,
said had “shown us how precipitously close we are to the brink of
war”.
Tweeting in Friday, Mr. Mladenov said that Israel "must calibrate
use of force. Hamas must ensure protests remain peaceful,
everyone must ensure that children are not put in danger".
Briefing journalists in Geneva on behalf of Mr. McGoldrick, Jens
Laerke from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs, (OCHA), said that “on the eve
of the one-year anniversary…the priority now is to save lives and
everyone needs to take action accordingly”.
The Israeli military “must ensure that their responses are in
line with the international legal obligations using non-violent
means to the greatest extent possible”, Mr. Laerke said, while
urging leaders of the militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza,
to prevent “acts of violence that compromise the peaceful nature
of the demonstrations and everyone must ensure that children are
not put in harm’s way”.
Large-scale protests could lead to ‘tragedy’ on
anniversary
Concerns surrounding a possible “tragedy” on Saturday had been
heightened by the news that the usual Friday protests had been
postponed, Mr. Laerke explained.
“Demonstrations today have, extraordinarily, been cancelled with
the call for demonstrations tomorrow” on a large scale, he said.
“The reason why the humanitarian coordinator is issuing this
(appeal) today, is exactly, precisely, because of his and our -
the entire humanitarian community’s - concern that we could see
another tragic day tomorrow and everything and everybody must do
everything possible to avoid that.”
In addition to the Palestinians killed in protests since March
2018, nearly 29,000 more have been injured, Mr. Laerke said,
“including over 7,000 people by live ammunition”.
Three clearly-marked healthworkers caring for the wounded during
demonstrations were also killed, the OCHA spokesperson added,
noting also that one member of the Israeli security forces had
also been killed and six others injured.
Gaza health system unable to cope with rise in
amputations
Amid longstanding shortages of basic goods and services in Gaza
linked to a more than decade-long air, sea and land blockade by
Israel, Mr. Laerke underlined the impact of the violence on
already overstretched health system.
“The many Palestinian casualties, including trauma injuries and
more than 120 limb amputations, has overwhelmed the Gaza health
system, which was already challenged by chronic power outages,
shortages of essential medicines and supplies, and gaps in
critical services, including mental health and psychosocial
support,” he said.
In comments to journalists in Geneva, the spokesperson insisted
that “we are issuing…a stark reminder to everyone involved in
this, that the protection of lives - not least of children - must
be at the top of everyone’s agenda during what we would expect to
be big demonstrations tomorrow.”
His comments echoed a warning earlier this week by Mr. Mladenov,
“that we may, once again, be facing another very dangerous
escalation of violence in Gaza, with potentially catastrophic
consequences”.
In comments to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, Mr. Mladenov
lamented the launch of at least 104 rockets and mortars from the
Gaza Strip towards Israel in recent days, one of which struck a
house in central Israel, injuring seven people, including three
children.
In response, Israeli forces carried out dozens of air strikes on
various locations in Gaza, Mr. Mladenov said, noting that local
sources indicated that seven Palestinians were injured.
Insisting that nobody had an interest in a full military
confrontation in Gaza, the UN official explained to the 15-member
body in New York the that his team had been working intensely
with Egypt and all concerned parties to ensure that the situation
does not spiral out of control.
