Star Metro - Palestinians in Gaza 'deserve more than survival,' says UN envoy

Israel stepped up its military offensive in Gaza, ignited by an attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023, earlier this month, while mediators push for a ceasefire that remains elusive.

The issue of aid has come sharply into focus amid a hunger crisis after Israel imposed a full blockade on Gaza for over two months, before allowing supplies in at a trickle last week.

"Since the resumption of hostilities in Gaza, the already horrific existence of civilians has only sunk further into the abyss. This is manmade," Sigrid Kaag, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, told the Council.

"Death is their companion," she continued. "It's not life, it's not hope. The people of Gaza deserve more than survival. They deserve a future."

The aid that is now coming in "is comparable to a lifeboat after the ship has sunk," she said.

Kaag warned that there could be no "sustainable peace" in the Middle East without a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, adding that the West Bank also is on a "dangerous trajectory."

And she called for collective action to revive a two-state solution, saying that a high-level international conference in June presents a "critical opportunity."

"It must launch a concrete path towards ending the occupation and realizing the two-state solution," she said.

When speaking of people in Gaza, "the words empathy, solidarity and support have lost their meaning," Kaag said.

"We should not become accustomed to the number of people killed or injured. These are daughters, mothers, and young children whose lives have been shattered. All have a name, all had a future, all had dreams and aspirations."

- 'Why didn't I die?' -

The UN Security Council also heard the harrowing testimony of an American surgeon on Wednesday, a few weeks after his return from Gaza.

"I am here because I have witnessed what is happening in Gaza with my own eyes, especially to children, and I cannot pretend not to have seen it. You too, cannot claim ignorance," said Dr Feroze Sidhwa.

The medical system in Gaza has not failed, he said. "It has been systematically dismantled through a sustained military campaign that has willfully violated international humanitarian law."

Children are "supposed to be protected," he said, but "in Gaza, those protections are simply gone."

"Most of my patients were pre-teen children, their bodies shattered by explosions and torn by flying metal. Many died. Those who lived often awoke to find their entire families gone," he said.

"According to the War Child Alliance, nearly half of Gaza's children are suicidal," he said.

"They ask, why didn't I die with my sister, my mother, my father? Not out of extremism, but out of unbearable grief. I wonder if any member of this Council has ever met a five-year-old child who no longer wants to live."

The Israeli ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, blamed Hamas for the situation in Gaza.

"There is suffering in Gaza, but the blame is on the shoulders of Hamas ... so they will continue to be suffering until Hamas will understand that they will not stay in Gaza," he told reporters.

D.Ch. Nadeau--SMC