Thousands of people in Gaza crammed to get aid - screenshot from a video by Reuters
CAIRO - 29 May 2025: Kazem Abu Khalaf, a UNICEF spokesperson, said that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's suspension of aid distribution to civilians "reflects a collapse in the response mechanism to the humanitarian crisis sweeping the Gaza Strip."
He emphasized that this suspension came just days after a previous announcement to continue aid, causing real shock in international and human rights circles.
In statements to journalist Raad Abdul Majeed on Al-Qahera News Channel, Abu Khalaf added that this decision is not surprising to observers, especially in light of the increasing chaos on the ground and the transformation of aid distribution points into potential tools for forcing residents to flee: "What happened yesterday was not an aid distribution scene; it was nothing more than the forced cramming of hungry people as a result of their deprivation of the most basic necessities of life for 78 days."
The spokesman emphasized that using starvation and then aid as pressure tools represents a clear violation of the basic principles of humanitarian response, which require that aid reach those in need directly, rather than forcing them to cross long distances while exhausted and hungry. "People in the northern Gaza Strip have been completely excluded from aid, in a situation devoid of even the most basic considerations of justice or human dignity."
Abu Khalaf concluded by pointing out that field authorities in Gaza have observed cases of injured people arriving at hospitals suffering from severe hunger.
He considered the distribution of aid by untrained or inhumane entities a harbinger of a greater catastrophe, calling for the management of aid to be handed over to specialized UN organizations with extensive experience in humanitarian work.
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