UN stresses adherence to principles of neutrality and independence in delivering life-saving humanitarian aid to Gaza.<\/p>\n
The United Nations has said it will not take part in a US-backed humanitarian operation in Gaza because it is not impartial, neutral or independent, as Israel pledged to facilitate the effort without being involved in aid deliveries.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis particular distribution plan does not accord with our basic principles, including those of impartiality, neutrality, independence, and we will not be participating in this,\u201d deputy UN spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation will start work in Gaza by the end of May under a heavily criticised aid plan that the UN aid chief Tom Fletcher described as a \u201cfig leaf for further violence and displacement\u201d of Palestinians in Gaza.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters in Antalya, Turkiye, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday acknowledged the criticisms and said Washington was open to any alternative plan to get aid to civilians \u201cwithout Hamas being able to steal it\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not immune or in any way insensitive to the suffering of the people of Gaza, and I know that there\u2019s opportunities here to provide aid for them,\u201d Rubio said after speaking with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are criticisms of that plan. We\u2019re open to an alternative if someone has a better one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Thursday that the UN \u201chas a solid and principled operational plan to deliver humanitarian aid and life-saving services at scale and immediately across the Gaza Strip\u201d.<\/p>\n
Israel has accused Hamas of stealing aid, which the group denies, and has blocked the delivery of all humanitarian assistance to Gaza since March 2, demanding Hamas release all remaining captives.<\/p>\n
A report<\/a> by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification initiative released on Monday said the Gaza Strip \u201cis still confronted with a critical risk of famine\u201d after more than a year and a half of devastating war<\/a>, with the vast majority of its approximately 2.1 million people at severe risk.<\/p>\n In a bid to address some concerns, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has asked Israel to expand an initial limited number of so-called secure aid distribution sites in Gaza\u2019s south to the north within 30 days. It has also asked Israel to let the UN and others resume aid deliveries now until it is set up.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not familiar with those requests, maybe when they went into Jerusalem, but I will tell you that we appreciate the effort of the United States,\u201d Israel\u2019s UN Ambassador Danny Danon told reporters on Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will not fund those efforts. We will facilitate them. We will enable them,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will not be the ones giving the aid \u2026 It will be run by the fund itself, led by the US.\u201d<\/p>\n Israel and the US have urged the UN and aid groups to cooperate and work with the foundation.<\/p>\n It is unclear how the foundation will be funded. A Department of State spokesperson said no US government funding would go to the foundation.<\/p>\n A fact sheet on the foundation, circulating among the aid community last week, listed respected former UN World Food Programme chief David Beasley as a potential adviser. However, a source familiar with the effort said Beasley was not currently involved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UN stresses adherence to principles of neutrality and independence in delivering life-saving humanitarian aid to Gaza. The United…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[837,839,12,1814,49,978,286,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-104581","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-israel","9":"tag-middle-east","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-palestine","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-us","14":"tag-us-canada","15":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114514074254063380","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}