No excuse for Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid into Gaza, says UK's Lammy

Britain's Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, on Monday condemned Israel's restrictions on aid into Gaza and said there was “no excuse” for blocking humanitarian assistance.

Mr Lammy told the 15-member UN Security Council that there needs to be a “huge, huge rise in aid” into Gaza, where most of the population of 2.3 million has been displaced.

“Four hundred days into this war, it is totally unacceptable that it is harder than ever to get aid into Gaza,” he said. Presiding over the council session, he described the conditions in the enclave as “devastating and frankly beyond comprehension”.

“Famine is imminent,” added Mr Lammy, highlighting that in October, only 37 lorries carrying aid entered Gaza daily. “It’s the lowest average in the last year. The situation in northern Gaza is a nightmare of disease, destruction and despair.”

The Security Council meeting comes amid growing international calls for unimpeded humanitarian access to the blockaded territory.

Tor Wennesland, the UN co-ordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, said the humanitarian situation in Gaza, is “catastrophic”, singling out northern Gaza, where “a large-scale and near-total displacement of the population” has occurred amid widespread destruction and “a disturbing disregard for international humanitarian law”.

“The current conditions are among the worst we’ve seen during the entire war and are not set to improve,” Mr Wennesland said.

According to the UN, on Saturday, from 109 lorries carrying food were violently looted after entering Gaza. The convoy carrying food provided by UNRWA and the World Food Programme had been instructed by Israel to depart “at short notice via an unfamiliar route” from the Karam Abu Salem border crossing, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York.

“From the 109 lorries, only 11 made it safely to the warehouse in Deir Al Balah. Ninety-eight lorries were lost,” Mr Dujarric said, adding that the UN did not know who had looted the vehicles.

Israel's UN envoy Danny Danon argued that Israel had facilitated the entry of hundreds of aid trucks weekly but accused aid agencies of failing to collect the supplies and alleged that Palestinian militant group Hamas had looted the trucks:

“Not only must the UN step up its aid distribution obligations, but the focus must also shift to Hamas' constant hijacking of humanitarian aid to feed the machine of terror and misery," Mr Danon said.

"We will continue with our efforts, despite the council continuing to ignore the true cause of the situation, Hamas and its violent greed" he added.

The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told the Security Council that Washington was closely monitoring Israel's actions to improve the situation for Palestinians in Gaza, and engaging with the government every day.

The administration of US President Joe Biden concluded this month that, despite recognising the grave humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave, Israel was not impeding assistance to Gaza and therefore not violating US law.

The assessment follows an October 13 letter in which Washington outlined 15 measures for Israel to take within 30 days to mitigate the worsening situation. The letter warned that failure to act could affect US military aid.

Ms Thomas-Greenfield said Israel has enacted 12 of the 15 measures but called for further action.

“We need to see all steps fully implemented and sustained,” she said. “Concrete improvement in the humanitarian situation is essential, including the entry of commercial lorries into Gaza alongside humanitarian aid, addressing lawlessness, and establishing pauses in fighting to ensure assistance reaches those in need.”