‘History will record this: These atrocities must stop now’ • FRANCE 24 English

‘History will record this: These atrocities must stop now’ • FRANCE 24 English

in other news the UN General Assembly this Thursday is set to vote on a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza the opening of all Israeli border crossings for aid and the release of all remaining hostages held by Hamas Drafted by Spain it also strongly condemns the use of the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare Now it’s worth mentioning that last week the UN Security Council for its part failed to pass a similar resolution that demanded a truce and urged Israel to lift all restrictions on aid The US was the only one of the 15 members to veto the text and this because it was not linked to the release of hostages While there are no vetos in the 193 member general assembly the measure is expected to pass though uh the body’s resolutions are of course not legally binding For more on the latest situation uh that we’re seeing play out in the Gaza Strip in the meantime Jorge Mora Dilva joins me on set He is the executive director of the United Nations Office for Project Services also known by its acronym UNOPS Uh thank you very much for joining us uh today sir So the main aid organization functioning in the Gaza Strip right now is currently the opaque if not controversial uh Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Can you remind us about the context that kind of led up to the creation of this very specific uh group and talk about why it is controversial thank you Indeed we are dealing with a with a new mechanism the Israeli mechanism that tried to replace the United Nations mechanism is there was a mechanism called the 2720 mechanism approved by the security council that was managed by UNOPS that was basically approving all aid entering to Gaza uh ensuring that there was accountability transparency monitoring of the aid and it was functioning and that it showed during the ceasefire that it allowed massive deployment of aid and suddenly uh this mechanism united nation mechanism was stopped and replaced by is this Israeli mechanism this mechanism from Israel doesn’t respect the international humanitarian law Uh it’s mil militarized it’s privatized uh it forces displacement We have been seen your footage showing massive displacement of people just to have some access to food High concentration of people 144 people killed in the last uh two days trying to get the food So we need to bring the UN back We need to bring the United Nations mechanism back uh uh this is the the the the best way to ensure an impeded access to to food but even before that not just food but all all elements but even before that we need to ensure that even the fuel that is inside Gaza can be exceeded is your organization the United Nations office for project services able to carry out any meaningful operations at this stage in the Gaza Strip now very limited operations the two areas where we’ve been working are highly restricted Uh one was was the monitoring of all eight and now we have managed only to enter once in one of the crossings So all monitoring of eight is stopped and the other area is the fuel This is particularly serious because fuel means water fuel means ambulances fuel means uh uh bread fuel means hospitals functioning and without fuel none of those things will function We have 2.7 million liters of fuel inside Gaza UNOPS procured and and and and storage 2.7 million liters We can’t exceed that storage We’ve been trying All access has been denied and only the small part of that fuel 1,00 150,000 liters It’s the it will disappear in two days I just been told that by my team that when they were trying to get to to those storage facilities that were caught into shelling strikes and they have to return So we really need and I call on Israel to ensure that UNOPS can get into the storage facilities bring the fuel to the bakeries to the hospitals to the water facilities This is life-saving and there is no reason no reason This is not acceptable Even worse even wars have rules The rules are not being respected We need a a full implementation of international military law release of the hostages ceasefire But I think that it’s fundamental uh to take quick decisions I really hope that the discussions in New York in a few days on the two-state solution will give a boost on diplomacy It’s what we need as well You recently wrote a piece about the importance of trust and transparency in the aid distribution process specifically Uh can you talk more about how these mechanisms are supposed to work and where trust and transparency appear to be lacking on both sides of the Israel Hamas war visibly i’ve been uh sharing this with several governments If they ask today how many consignments have been uh uh brought into Gaza uh how much food is being distributed they don’t know With our mechanism everything was online Uh all approvals of aid uh were centralized We knew what was rejected and why When Israel rejected the consignment the entire world was aware of the reasons and what has been rejected uh we were aware of the final use of the of the of the aid So this kind of transparency means trust and that trust is uh fundamental in an operation like like this I I I was quite happy to to hear when I visit Gaza and I visit Gaza twice that the mechanism was seen as an enabler for aid So that enable disappeared So we need to bring the mechanism back uh because the mechanism it’s what helps the other UN agencies to operate in a transparent accountable and predictable manner It’s stopped Be it the conflict in in in Gaza or Ukraine or Sudan or all the many context conflicts that we see in in the Sahel region as well to list just a few It’s very difficult to reach any conclusion other than the relative failure of the international system to impose and enforce international law In what state do you expect to see this system in the coming months ahead if it is unable to enforce its own mechanisms united Nations it’s the United Nations It’s not the secret threat of the United Nations So we need political will Uh there is no problem with the logistics I always said that in the last two years the the problem was never related with logistics It was always uh related with political will We need political will to ensure that all the pallets of food of water medicments that we have outside Gaza can be brought to Gaza So we need uh to ensure that political pressure uh uh will uh uh provide the results I call on all parties to stop the the the the war to get the ceasefire to release of the hostages but I also call on all United Nations to mobilize themselves to call for action because what we are seeing in your footage is unacceptable in the 21st century seeing children amputated children fighting to get a a dish of small portion of food uh people starving uh being forced displaced without any kind of hope in the future is unacceptable I think that one day we’ll be telling about this uh history will record this But rather than waiting for the history to tell us what happened we need to stop it now This atrocity must stop now Jorge Morarda Silva uh of the United Nations Office for Project Services Thank you very much for joining us on set today Thank you

The U.N. General Assembly is expected to vote Thursday on a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages held by Hamas, and the opening of all Israeli border crossings for deliveries of desperately needed food and other aid. The resolution, drafted by Spain and obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, “strongly condemns any use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare.” For in-depth analysis and a deeper perspective, FRANCE 24’s Erin Ogunkeye welcomes Jorge Moreira da Silva, Under-Secretary-General and UNOPS Executive Director.
#IsraelHamasWar #UNResolutionOnCeasefire #GazaHumanitarianCrisis

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