New york: An Oxfam official stated on Thursday that blocking principled humanitarian aid is part of Israel's collective punishment of the Palestinian people in Gaza. Addressing the UN Security Council in New York, Oxfam's Global Humanitarian Policy Lead Bushra Khalidi, a Palestinian mother from Jerusalem living in the West Bank, warned: 'The ceasefire is failing. Israeli forces continue to kill Palestinians. Gaza is being carved up again, with more of its entire population squeezed into a shrinking fraction of the Strip. Civilians remain trapped, displaced, hungry, unprotected.'
According to Palestine News and Information Agency, Bushra Khalidi noted that Israel, the occupying power, continues to block credible humanitarian actors, including UNRWA, from doing their jobs, although such actors are 'being audited, transparent, accountable, bound by humanitarian principles.' She highlighted that these experienced professionals are obstructed, restricted, deregistered, and killed in significant numbers. Khalidi emphasized that blocking principled humanitarians is part of a broader collective punishment strategy. When these actors are blocked, opaque and unaccountable entities fill the void, leading to the collapse of prioritization, erosion of coordination, and leaving communities to navigate scarcity and survival on their own.
Khalidi urged the UN Security Council (UNSC) to 'hold the parties accountable now. Not after further political negotiations, not after disarmament, not as a reward for compliance. Now.' She also called on the UNSC to 'act by using all available political, diplomatic and legal tools to end atrocities, to end the occupation.'
In her concluding remarks, Khalidi stated, 'History will not remember how many reports were filed, or how many meetings were convened. It will judge whether, when confronted with lives and futures being obliterated, this Council acted with urgency, with courage, with humanity.'