September 15 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has denounced this Saturday that the mechanism to protect humanitarian workers in the Gaza Strip is “not being complied with”, following the death on Wednesday of six of its employees in an Israeli attack on a school that housed displaced people.
UNRWA Deputy Director for Gaza Sam Rose said that while the mechanism agreed at the start of the Israeli offensive follows similar procedures used in conflict zones around the world, “what we are seeing (in the Strip) is increasingly evidence that what was agreed is not being complied with.”
“When we have personnel who have been approved to travel to northern Gaza in advance and have been there many times before without any problems, but upon reaching the checkpoint are subjected to some kind of horrific and serious assault lasting several hours, the only thing we can conclude is that the protection mechanism is simply not being respected,” he said, arguing that UNRWA is indeed fulfilling “(its) end of the deal.”
Rose’s remarks came on Saturday during a visit to the Al Yaouni school in Nuseirat camp, after it was bombed by the Israeli army on Wednesday, killing at least 18 people, including six school workers.
The school, located in the central Gaza Strip, has been hosting displaced people since October 2023 and has recently been used as a vaccination centre as part of the anti-polio campaign in the Palestinian enclave.
“Staff are still in a state of grief and shock, but colleagues spoke of the horror and what goes through their minds when things like this happen,” the UN official said after speaking to the agency’s staff.
Rose praised the efforts of UNRWA staff, despite the fact that “many” are tired of hearing about international law, “which does not seem to apply to them”; they do not feel safe and fear “becoming a target”.
“At the same time, they are accused of working for a terrorist organisation, which in their time of grief has left them feeling sick, useless and numb,” he said.
Like other civilians, aid workers also “have nowhere else to go,” Rose said, lamenting that “there is no guarantee that they will be safe anywhere they go. So they simply choose to stay where they are and wait for what happens.”
The official admitted that the United Nations has run out of options to protect humanitarian workers and civilians in Gaza, but said it will continue to try to provide “a minimum of protection, partly through our presence here, but also through monitoring, reporting and assistance.”
The UN called for an “independent and thorough investigation” into the attack in Al Yaouni and reminded “all” parties to the conflict of their obligation to “respect UN facilities and never use them for military activities” and to distinguish “between combatants and civilians.”
In this regard, he called on UN member states to “ensure that humanitarian aid and services are provided” in line with the principles enshrined in the UN Charter, and recalled that “violations of international law” are hindering the work of the organization in the Strip.
“Unfortunately, if parties to a conflict can see that norms, frameworks and international humanitarian law can be ignored with apparent impunity, this has an impact on our ability to work and maintain our security in other conflicts now and in the future,” he warned.
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