Killing of Civilians in Gaza Waiting in Line for Humanitarian Aid Must End, Relief Chief Tells Security Council, Urging Return to UN-Led Delivery Mechanism
s civilians lining up for humanitarian aid in Gaza are being killed, speakers in the Security Council today urged Israel to lift restrictions on aid operations in the Strip, called for a return to United Nations-led delivery mechanisms, and stressed the urgent need for both the release of hostages and a ceasefire.
“Gaza’s soaring humanitarian needs must be met without drawing people into a firing line,” said Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. He recalled General Assembly resolution 46/182, adopted in 1991, which laid the groundwork for modern international humanitarian assistance by establishing a framework and guiding principles — humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence — for the UN’s role in coordinating humanitarian efforts during emergencies.
Israel, as the occupying Power, is obligated to ensure that people have food and medical supplies, he said, adding: “But that is not happening. Instead, civilians are exposed to death and injury, forcible displacement, stripped of dignity.” He went on to urge Council members to consider whether Israel’s rules of engagement incorporate all feasible precautions to avoid and minimize civilian harm, in all circumstances. This means verifying targets, giving effective advance warnings, carefully choosing tactics and weapons, and canceling or suspending an attack if it would cause disproportionate civilian harm, he said.
Number of Aid Trucks Currently Allowed into Gaza ‘Drop in the Ocean’
Between 19 May and 14 July, only 1,633 trucks — or 62 per cent of the roughly 2,600 submitted to the Israeli authorities and 74 per cent of those approved for entry — reached the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings. “To be clear, this is a drop in the ocean of needs, compared to the average of 630 truckloads, that entered daily” during an earlier ceasefire, he said. The ceasefire proved what’s possible. It’s time to return to those levels without delay.
Turning to recent remarks by Israel’s Defence Minister about moving Palestinians into a “humanitarian city”, he said the proposal to forcibly displace Palestinians to a designated zone near Rafah is “not humanitarian”, underscoring the need to protect civilians wherever they are, release all hostages held by Hamas, allow humanitarian aid at scale and ensure the safety of humanitarian workers. “You owe that to Israeli and Palestinian civilians, to the last hopes of a sustainable peace, and to the UN Charter,” he said, calling for a ceasefire.
Today’s meeting was called by Denmark, France, Greece, Slovenia and the United Kingdom, following abhorrent reports of human suffering in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including killings at aid distribution sites operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — a non-UN mechanism established with support from Israel and the United States. Between 27 May and 7 July, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded the killings of 798 Palestinian civilians — including children — desperate to find food, at or near distribution sites and humanitarian convoys.
International Community Failing Gaza’s Children
“Among the survivors was Donia, a mother seeking a lifeline for her family after months of desperation and hunger,” said Catherine Russell, Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Donia’s 1-year-old son, Mohammed, was killed in the attack after speaking his first words just hours earlier. The mother was lying critically injured in a hospital bed, clutching her son’s tiny shoe. “No parent should experience such a horrific tragedy,” she said.
“The simple truth is that we are failing Gaza’s children,” she said, noting that child malnutrition in Gaza has surged 180 per cent since February, with nearly 6,000 cases in June. Most households lack safe water, fueling disease outbreaks — waterborne illnesses now make up 44 per cent of medical consultations. Hospitals are overwhelmed, short on medicine and fuel, and emergency care is collapsing. At least 12,500 patients, including many children, need urgent medical evacuation, but few are being accepted abroad. “History will judge this failure harshly,” she warned, adding: “And the children will judge it too.”
She implored that UNICEF and its humanitarian partners be allowed to do their jobs. “We have proven that essentials like medicine, vaccines, water, food, and nutrition for babies can reach those in need, wherever they are, when we have appropriate access,” she said, calling for an urgent return to the functioning UN-led aid pipeline with safe and sustained humanitarian access through all available crossings.
875 People Killed in Gaza while Seeking Food; Calls for Aid to Be Delivered at Scale
The ensuing discussion centred on issues raised by the two UN officials. Many delegates, alarmed that 875 people have been killed in Gaza while seeking food as of 13 July, expressed concern that 674 of them perished in the vicinity of the sites operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation while calling for an end to the conflict.
“We fear the world is growing accustomed to the unbearable, to the unacceptable,” said the observer for the State of Palestine. “In Gaza, all paths lead to death,” he deplored, urging: “Our role, our responsibility, our legal and moral duty is to open one that leads to salvation.” Aid must be delivered at scale, to all and across all of Gaza, he said, stressing that “this is non-negotiable and shouldn’t be a point of contention”. He expressed support for an immediate ceasefire and the mediation efforts of Egypt, Qatar and the United States to secure such a truce. But that should not be a pretext to continue, until then, killing Palestinians or denying them aid. In Gaza, every day, 77 children are killed or maimed, 61 children lose a parent, and 10 children lose one or both legs. “Our role is not to be the narrators of this genocide but to be part of the movement that brings it to an end,” he said.
Drawing a parallel between the current situation in Gaza and the Srebrenica genocide, Slovenia’s representative recalled how, 30 years ago, “we heard statements claiming there were practically no civilian victims”, that people were well-nourished, and that one side was merely acting in self-defence. “We saw a UN entity treated as an enemy […] people being pushed into so-called safe zones, and then targeted indiscriminately”, he said, adding: “The day came — too late for too many. […] The day will eventually come in Gaza. Will it be too late again?” he asked.
Council Silent on Suffering of Israeli Children, Hamas’ War Crimes
The representative of Israel emphasized that, while the suffering of Palestinian children “demands our attention”, the Council has been silent on that of Israeli children. This is more than a technical omission — “it is a moral failure”, she stressed. Further, the Council seems unwilling to condemn Hamas for the evils perpetrated on 7 October 2023 and, instead, “we are presented with a narrative that forces Israel into a defendant’s chair” while Hamas “goes unmentioned, unchallenged and immune to condemnation”, she said. To address the situation in Gaza without mentioning Hamas’ war crimes is propaganda, she stated — “it does not support peace, but politicizes suffering”. For its part, Israel will keep supporting the entry of critical supplies into Gaza “because we believe innocent civilians deserve relief — relief from the agony that Hamas has caused them”. “But we will not allow that aid to become fuel for terror,” she added.
Her counterpart from the United States emphasized that “refusal to work with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is tantamount to dereliction of duty in the humanitarian space”, and added: “We would have a ceasefire today if Hamas had agreed to the proposal on the table.” While no one wants to see Palestinian civilians go hungry or thirsty, she stressed that aid must be delivered “in a way that does not allow Hamas to benefit”. Further, she said that it is “unconscionable” that Council members have criticized the Foundation rather than condemning Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad for their continued abuse of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. “The result is an ever-growing credibility gap for the UN,” she said.
Algeria’s delegate, expressing regret that Council sessions and the statements delivered in the chamber neither dissuade the occupier nor stop its massacre, said: “What is even more surprising is that we are hearing some defending the killers and finding themselves justifications. For some, killing children is a mere collateral damage.”
Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Mechanism Violates Humanitarian Principles
The speaker for the Russian Federation supported UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ decision not to participate in the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s aid distribution mechanism. Noting that more than 200 non-governmental organizations recently launched a joint appeal to stop the work of “this violent, militarized mechanism where Palestinians are faced with an impossible choice to decide whether they will die of hunger or die while they’re queuing up for their food ration,” he pointed out that Israel and the United States continue considering the mechanism effective and are bragging about the millions of meals distributed to civilians, not Hamas.
Similarly, his counterpart from China said that the militarized mechanism launched by the United States and Israel violates humanitarian principles, observing: “Not only is this mechanism not sufficient to ease the humanitarian situation, but it has repeatedly caused heavy civilian casualties.” Meanwhile, the UN and other humanitarian agencies have built “fully-fledged systems with rich experience”, and he urged all parties to “support the UN in delivering assistance in a manner that upholds humanitarian principles”.
Guyana’s representative observed that the Foundation lacks capacity to achieve its stated objective. Concurring, the representative of Pakistan, Council President for July, spoke in his national capacity to underscore that the current aid mechanism in Gaza is “clearly failing those it claims to serve”. “Most gravely, the system has morphed into a death trap,” he said, stressing that the denial of lifesaving assistance has reached “indefensible” levels.
Central Role of United Nations, UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)
Both the representatives of the United Kingdom and Denmark highlighted the central role of the United Nations, including the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), in humanitarian response, with the latter saying that “the UN — including UNRWA — alongside their humanitarian partners must be allowed to do their job.”
The representative of the European Union — in its capacity as observer — said that following its agreement with Israel to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, “we can already see some improvements, including delivery of fuel, re-opening of the Jordanian and Egyptian routes, opening of a crossing point in North Gaza, and ongoing reparations of essential humanitarian infrastructure”. “But a lot more is needed,” he added. Welcoming the agreement, Greece’s representative expressed hope that measures are implemented urgently to “substantially increase the daily trucks of food and non-food items and result in opening of more crossings in southern and northern Gaza”.
Calls for Full, Transparent Investigation of Killings of Palestinians Queuing for Food
The speaker for the Republic of Korea called for a full and transparent investigation of the killings of Palestinians waiting in line to get food. Additionally, “international journalists must be allowed to enter Gaza, witness what is happening, and report the details back to the world,” he said.
Panama’s delegate, holding up the glass of water prepared for all Council members, observed: “We are taking the floor in this chamber with immediate, unfettered access to clean water — clean water that cools our throat after and while we issue statements which call for peace.” Juxtaposed against that, he offered another image — one of “a Palestinian mother under the blistering July heat, walking among the rubble with an empty drum, hoping that — at some distribution site — she will be able to fill up two measly bottles of water for her children”. In Gaza, he stressed, “water neither refreshes nor hydrates — its absence sows despair, and its absence is no accident; it is a slow sentence handed down by humans and the suffering they have induced”.
Clear Pattern of Israeli Aggression in Region
Sierra Leone’s delegate said that “international humanitarian law is unambiguous” in prohibiting collective punishment and placing obligations on occupying Powers to ensure the provision of food, medical care, and essential services. However, Hakan Fidan, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Türkiye, spotlighted the “clear pattern” of Israeli aggression in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Iran. “If left unchecked, this pattern risks wider destabilization,” he observed.
Somalia’s delegate said that “as long as the root causes — occupation, blockade, and the denial of Palestinian self-determination — persist, peace will remain out of reach”. On that, France’s representative announced that his country and Saudi Arabia will co-chair an international conference on implementing a two-State solution on 29-30 July. This solution, he added, is not a “utopia” or a “pipe dream” — it is “a pathway towards the future”.
via https://press.un.org/en/2025/sc16121.doc.htm