The international community’s failure of aid to Palestine

This article is particularly pertinent regarding the ongoing events in Israel-Palestine, given their highly sensitive and rapidly evolving nature. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the wider St. Andrews Foreign Affairs Review team.

Trigger warning: Mention of self-harm.

This article was updated as of 6th November 2023.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres deemed the civilian death and destruction of Gaza an unjust ‘collective punishment of the Palestinian people’ following the 7 October Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry is now reporting death at 10,022, with 4,104 of those being children, and another 25,408 injured since retaliatory strikes began after 7 October. The human harm from airstrikes has been catastrophic; yet, this situation has been far exacerbated by the lack of humanitarian aid into Gaza and the dire circumstances created by Israel’s blockade of water, electricity, fuel, and food.  

In a statement released by activist group ActionAid Palestine, Riham Jafari, coordinator of advocacy and communication, described how ‘cases of dehydration and malnutrition are increasing rapidly. Hospitals, which have remained over capacity for weeks on end, can offer no solace to those on the brink of starvation as medical supplies run low, fuel is scarce, and bombs are indiscriminately dropped across Gaza including on the footsteps of hospitals.’

A ceasefire would be the most immediate way to halt these deaths and injuries, and bring comprehensive aid into Gaza. Sending aid during hostilities or in momentary halts of military action is extremely difficult, yet is the most effective route of reducing human suffering as the international community fails to achieve a ceasefire and release of hostages. However, the United States is unwilling to pursue this route in diplomatic negotiations with Israel.

The first major hurdle in supplying the region with aid is the ineffectuality of the United Nations and the dominance of the United States’ interests in the international community. On 18 October, a Security Council resolution that ‘called for ‘humanitarian pauses’ to deliver lifesaving aid to millions in Gaza’ was put to vote. Humanitarian pauses are momentary cessations of military action to allow humanitarian aid and efforts to get through. The resolution failed.

This resolution demonstrates the two-fold issue that confronts the international community’s lack of concrete action.

Firstly, had the resolution passed, it would be a simple ‘call’ for humanitarian pauses, representing (as has been demonstrated in many world crises) the inability of the UN to take concrete action. In the words of Mohammad Shtayyeh, President of the Palestinian Authority, ‘Palestinians are really fed up with the statements, and Palestinians are fed up with United Nations resolutions, more than 800 United Nations resolutions. Not one single one has ever been implemented.’

Second, but equally pressing, the failure of this UN resolution was contingent upon the interests of the United States. The United States’ permanent membership on the Security Council (along with Russia, China, France, and the UK) provides them with the veto power to reject resolutions through their singular vote—a mechanism which they utilised on this resolution.

Now, as of 6 November, the U.S. has changed its stance. Anthony Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State, stated his attempts to negotiate humanitarian pauses with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This turn in policy reflects domestic manoeuvring and electoral concern on the part of President Joe Biden, who has seen ‘an 11-percentage-point drop in backing […] among Democrats over the course of just one month.’

The people of Gaza’s survival is at stake, at the behest of U.S. interests and diplomatic inability. As ‘Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children,’ in the words of Antonio Guterres, the most desperate action that needs to be taken in light of the diplomatic stalemating, is the delivery of aid through the Rafah crossing, bordering Egypt.

From 7 October to 20 October, 2,100 aid trucks were planned to cross the border, providing humanitarian relief, yet none did as Egypt’s border remained closed due to fears of mass displacement into the country and damage caused by bombardment. Now, after the reopening of the border to aid on 21 October, 476 trucks have crossed into Gaza, still representing a stark decrease in assistance in comparison to the 500 trucks that crossed daily before this newest, most-bloody phase of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But the humanity must not be lost in all this. As negotiations over the Rafah crossing, humanitarian pauses, and ceasefires continue, the human toll—not in numbers, but in voices and stories—must be amplified to show the impacts of the crisis.

One woman, Nesma, who works for UNICEF and lives and works in Gaza, recounted the daily horrors experienced by her and her two children, Talia (four years old) and Zain (seven years old). They struggle without access to necessary provisions for life.

In her own words:

‘It breaks my heart to see children around me strive for a cup of clean water and cannot find it.

Zain keeps asking for regular water […] as she cannot bear the unfamiliar taste of the unfiltered water. She told me, and I quote: ‘Mommy, give me the regular water that we drink on regular days,’ and I couldn’t afford to tell her this is not one of our regular days.’

Nesma also shares that her youngest daughter Talia has resorted to self-harm, pulling out her hair and scratching her legs until they bleed, and both children are severely mentally impacted by their environment. But Nesma states that she does not have the privilege to take care of their mental or physical health. She says:

‘My mission in life has become to keep them alive. I don’t have the luxury to think about their mental health.’

A German citizen named Mahmoud Ahmed, who was visiting his sick mother when the violence broke out, said:

‘My sister was martyred and her body was not found under the rubble because there is no equipment […] The situation in Gaza is unbearable. It is hell with no food, no water, no electricity and no medicine.’

The ‘hell’ of Gaza undoubtedly has been made worse by the lack of aid available. More will suffer as Israel places restrictions on what aid can enter, such as prohibiting fuel (which they say Hamas would utilize in their strikes on Israel), and the Rafah border crossing proceeds to function at such a low capacity. The international community’s dependence upon the U.S., both institutionalized and in regard to diplomatic sway, ties their hands further into the web of ineffectuality that has long haunted the UN and wider international response.

The international community must respond and provide aid sufficiently, through actionable negotiation with Egypt and Israel relating to the Rafah crossing, enact sanctions (outside of UN structures) to leverage humanitarian pauses, and recognise this is a human issue—not through statements, but through action.

Image courtesy of Libertinus via Creative Commons, ©2023. Some rights reserved.