A United Nations aid chief is demanding answers from Israel after a deadly attack which killed 15 medical staff in southern Gaza.
Tom Fletcher, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs told The World With Yalda Hakim: “We demand accountability, we demand answers, and we call on… anyone who still has any influence at all over Israel to insist this must stop.”
He also alleged there was “a deliberate policy of withholding aid in order to put pressure on the people of Gaza”.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said on 23 March that its troops opened fire on vehicles that approached them “suspiciously” without identification. Earlier that day, the IDF had called for an evacuation of the area, saying Hamas militants were operating there.
The dead included eight Red Crescent workers, six members of Gaza’s Civil Defence emergency unit and a staff worker from UNRWA, the UN’s agency for Palestinians.
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Their bodies and mangled ambulances were found buried in a mass grave, apparently ploughed over by Israeli military bulldozers, in the southern city of Rafah.
In a wide-ranging interview, which also touched on the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, Mr Fletcher said the situation in Gaza has deteriorated.
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“My colleagues were pulling the bodies of medics out of shallow graves in Gaza over the last few days… these are horrors, and they’re happening before our eyes right now.”
‘Deliberate policy of withholding aid’
He added that aid is on the verge of running out in Gaza because they are unable to deliver critical supplies.
The UN aid chief was asked about whether he thought there was a policy to starve people in Gaza.
“This is what the elements of the Israeli cabinet have been saying, that this is a deliberate policy of withholding aid in order to put pressure on the people of Gaza, but ultimately on Hamas,” Mr Fletcher said.
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Gaza aid ‘rotting at the borders’
“Food is rotting at the borders, the medicine is going out of date, we can’t get those support to people who are in desperate, desperate need.
“We’ve been stopped from delivering aid. We’ve been told that we’re not allowed to deliver that aid. And so… there’s only a fraction, a tiny, tiny fraction, of what is needed to stop massive starvation and disease in Gaza right now,” he added.
Mr Fletcher was also critical about the scale of the conflict in Gaza. “The ferocity of this military offensive, is being cheered on from some quarters.
“I think America has made clear that its support for Israel at this moment is unequivocal and that there isn’t a message of restraint as there might have been, as there certainly was.”
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Sudan: Famine ‘rampant’ in parts
There was also concern from Mr Fletcher about Sudan, which the UN says is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis because of an ongoing conflict which has triggered severe famine.
“The attacks on humanitarian workers are continuing. And it’s not just in Gaza, of course. We’ve lost 84 humanitarian colleagues in Sudan, for example.
“We need to reach 30 million people right now. That’s two-thirds of the entire population of Sudan. We’ve got a situation now where where famine is once again rampant in areas of North Darfur, in Nuba and elsewhere
“We have got just a horrific conflict and yet the world is completely silent on this. We can’t say that we don’t know this is happening.”
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