Famine is now official in Gaza, where more than 313 people have died of starvation, adding to nearly 63,000 who have died since the war began in October 2023. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has been expelled from Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory in East Jerusalem, and continues to suffer the consequences of a virulent disinformation campaign launched by the Israeli state: it has lost a third of its funding in the midst of war, 90% of its facilities have been partially or completely destroyed, and more than 360 of its 12,000 staff members have died under the bombardments.
Philippe Lazzarini, 61, UNRWA’s commissioner-general, says the agency is struggling to maintain basic critical services for the 2.1 million people living in Gaza, where 70% of infrastructure has been destroyed and Israel has banned the entry of a single gram of flour since it unilaterally broke the ceasefire with Hamas on March 2. About 6,000 trucks carrying enough food to feed Gaza for two months are parked at the borders with Jordan and Egypt. Meanwhile, the Israeli army is preparing yet another offensive, making the future of the Palestinian enclave and multilateral cooperation even more uncertain.
“Gaza is becoming the graveyard of international humanitarian law,” Lazzarini said in an interview with EL PAÍS on Tuesday, during the Quo Vadis Europa XIII summer course, organized by the Menéndez Pelayo International University in Santander, in which he participated.
Question. Famine has been officially declared in Gaza, with 313 people dead from starvation. How did we get to this point?
Answer. In Gaza, the famine is not the result of a combination of factors, but rather man-made. The doors have been closed. We have been warning about the signs of famine and sounding the alarm bells for months, but our warnings have fallen on deaf ears. We saw it through our health centers, where the number of acutely malnourished children [in the capital] has increased sixfold in the last [six] months.
The fear now is that hunger will not only hit Gaza City and the Governorate, but that it will spread to the entire Gaza Strip. Today, people are not only dying because of the bombardments, the lack of treatment, and diseases, but they are also starting to die silently from lack of food. And what is absolutely obscene is that more than 1,500 people have also died while desperately seeking food assistance in distribution centers set up near Israel Defense Forces positions, run by the infamous Gaza Humanitarian Foundation [GHF, operated by Israeli soldiers and U.S. private contractors].
The level of inaction from the international community is also shocking. Outrage has been expressed for months and months, but nothing has changed. Meanwhile, the West Bank is seeing unprecedented levels of violence and forced displacement, which would surely be making today’s headlines if they hadn’t been overshadowed by the disaster in Gaza.
Q. Has the global outrage resulted in more food entering Gaza today? Can UNRWA bring food to the Gaza Strip?
A. There is a deliberate policy to prevent UNRWA from bringing its supplies to Gaza, so since March 2, we haven’t been able to deliver any food. We have 6,000 truckloads between Jordan and Egypt, ready to be sent; that’s the equivalent to two months of supplies for all of Gaza. Some convoys have entered in recent weeks, but not from UNRWA. And much of it has been looted before reaching its destination, not necessarily by armed gangs or organized mobs, but by desperate, hungry people. It’s an undignified and unjust distribution because only the strongest make it through. As for humanitarian aid dropped by air, it’s at least 100 times more expensive than trucks, which can carry twice as much aid as planes.
Now a ceasefire is needed, as well as the release of all hostages, and massive unimpeded entry of humanitarian aid. During the January-March ceasefire, the agency operated at full gear, proving that the looming famine could be reversed if access to the Strip was granted.
Q. What is the aim of the disinformation campaigns waged against UNRWA?
A. Israel made the accusations that Hamas operatives had infiltrated UNRWA in January 2024, but long before that, it had already declared the dismantling of the agency as a war objective. Israeli politicians see a unique opportunity to dismantle an organization that represents, in their eyes, the right of return of Palestinian refugees. And they believe that, by dismantling the agency, they will get rid of the refugee status that, in their eyes, has already been perpetuated for too long and represents a major obstacle to some political goals. So, dismantling the agency and stripping Palestinians of their refugee status is also a way to undermine the right to self-determination. And, therefore, a way to undermine the two-state solution, to modify the parameters of any future political resolution to the conflict.
Q. What has been the direct impact on UNRWA’s operational capacity during the war?
A. The impact of the disinformation campaign was such that, within 48 hours of the accusation, 16 countries announced a temporary freeze to their contributions to UNRWA. Lawmakers from those member states took this information at face value, which greatly discredited the agency. We were found guilty before we could prove our innocence. The consequence has been a reduction in donations. The largest donor was the United States, with $300 million; in Europe, another important donor was Sweden, with $50 million. Both have stopped. Together, they represented a third of UNRWA’s budget. But we have also had other countries increase their contributions, such as Spain, Luxembourg, and Portugal, among others; new donors such as Iraq and Djibouti; and we have even received an unprecedented increase in private donations totaling almost $100 million.
All of this has not made up for the cut in donations. Despite this, we’ve succeeded in maintaining our basic activities, we are prioritizing to the bones, although I don’t know how much longer we can maintain critical services for one of the most vulnerable populations in the region. All these efforts to restrict UNRWA’s work have contributed to the disaster we are faced with today in Gaza.
Q. Given Israel is a U.N. member state, what precedent does this set for the future of international humanitarian law and for multilateral cooperation in future conflicts?
A. I always warned that this was not just an issue with UNRWA. It’s true that there is a political agenda behind it, but other agencies were going to be next. And that’s exactly what happened. Gaza is becoming the graveyard of international humanitarian law. Everything has been so blatantly disregarded… Including the provision ruling of the International Court of Justice urging a significant increase in unimpeded assistance. That was in January 2024, and look where we are today. Impunity prevails, and there’s a growing sense in the region that international humanitarian law is not universal. Today, it’s difficult to teach Palestinians anything about human rights in schools. We have made the Geneva Convention almost irrelevant. What is happening and being accepted today in Gaza is not something that can be isolated; it will become the new norm for all future conflicts.
Q. It’s difficult to talk about the future in a Gaza that’s currently uninhabitable. Do you see a future for Gaza? And for UNRWA?
A. Nobody knows what the future of Gaza holds. The key question is whether or not Gaza will be a land for the Palestinians in the future. If it is to be, it will have to be reconstructed. That scenario is the so-called Arab Peace Initiative. But if we move towards the second scenario, which is the reoccupation of the land and the expansion of settlers, Gaza will no longer be a land for the Palestinians. It would be a second Nakba. I think that we should spare no effort today to invest in the first scenario as the only one in line with the endgame accepted by the international community: the two-state solution.
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