The humanitarian community has welcomed the ceasefire agreed in
the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel but warned that the
destruction in Gaza will take years, if not decades, to fix.
Speaking from Gaza, Matthias Schmale from the UN relief agency
for Palestinians UNRWA, said that there was no “going back to
normal” in the enclave, after more than 10 days of rocket fire
and airstrike exchanges between the warring parties that have
killed more than 250 people and injured thousands.
“Going back to normal life means having to watch very carefully
where we are going; unexploded devices, we know that at least one
school, one of our 278 schools, where we have established two
deeply buried bombs, and we have alerted the Israeli
authorities”, he said. “Obviously we cannot just rush back into
our buildings and schools, we have to make sure they’re safe.”
The senior UNRWA official also noted that the Kerem Shalom
crossing was due to open for several hours on Friday but that for
the duration of the clashes, it had not been possible to get
people out for medical treatment, or aid reinforcements in.
Mr. Schmale noted that UNRWA staff who are mainly residents of
the region said that the violence had been “worse in intensity
and terror than 2014”, before echoing the UN Secretary-General’s
call for a meaningful political process to resolve the
grievances of both Palestinians and Israelis.
War still looms
“Normality here also means 50 per cent employed and rising...I’m
convinced after being here two and a half years that we will be
back in war unless underlying causes are not addressed; and from
a Gaza perspective that means giving people and especially young
people a dignified perspective of a dignified life”, he said.
“If you have your own money and take home your own money to buy
food instead of depending on handouts from the UN”, the top UN
official added, “you’re less likely to run into groupings like
Hamas”.
The UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock, allocated $4.5
million towards the cost of meeting rising needs across Gaza on
Friday. The money comes from the Central Emergency Response Fund
(CERF),
which is in addition to $14.1 million allocated on Thursday. It
is expected that an inter-agency Flash Appeal for the occupied
Palestinian territory will be issued next week.
UNICEF delivers aid containers
The UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, delivered 18
containers of aid on Friday following the resumption of relative
calm in the Gaza Strip, through the Kerem Shalom crossing, to
support children and families in need.
Among the items delivered were first-aid kits, blood supply bags
and solution, fire extinguishers, antibiotics and other
infection-control kits, together with 10,000 doses of the
Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine.
“We are extremely thankful that a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza
strip came into effect at 2am this morning, because the human
toll there has been huge”, said Lucia Elmi,
UNICEF Special Representative in Palestine. “This will allow
families to have much-needed respite and allow for the delivery
of much-needed humanitarian assistance and personnel to the Gaza
Strip”, she added.
UN rights experts call for ICC probe
UN human rights experts on Friday called on all parties
to the conflict in Gaza and Israel to respect the ceasefire, and
urged an investigation by the International Criminal Court
(ICC) into the attacks on civilian populations and other “gross
violations of human rights”, according to a statement released
through the UN rights office (OHCHR).
The experts pointed to the forced evictions of Palestinian
families living in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan, in Occupied East
Jerusalem, as the spark that set off a full-blown war.
They said that at least 222 people, including 63 children, were
killed in Gaza and 12 people died in Israel as a result of the
fighting.
More than 450 buildings in the Gaza Strip were completely
destroyed or damaged by missiles, the statement continued. Among
them were six hospitals, nine healthcare centres and a water
desalination plant, supplying around 250,000 Palestinians with
clean drinking water, as well as a tower which housed media
outlets including the Al Jazeera network, and Associated Press
(AP).
‘Asymmetry of power’
“Owing to the vast asymmetry of power, the victims of this
conflict are disproportionately Palestinians in Gaza, of whom
over 74,000 have been forcibly displaced and made homeless,
mostly women and children”, the experts said.
“The conflict has led to a new wave of unprecedented mass
destruction of civilian homes and infrastructure, including
electrical grids in Gaza, and indiscriminate or deliberate
missile attacks on civilians and residential areas in Israel and
Gaza, that violate not only international human rights standards,
but amount as well to crimes under international law for which
there is individual and State responsibility”, the experts
continued.
The experts said that all “indiscriminate or deliberate
bombardment of civilians and towers housing civilians, media
organizations and refugee camps in Gaza and Israel are war crimes
that are, prima facie, not justified by the requirements of
proportionality and necessity under international law. All
parties who engage in such attacks must bear individual and State
responsibility as appropriate.”
