New Deli, Dec. 19: The “impunity” for choosing war over any other means and killing humanitarian workers “has never been greater” than during Israel’s war on Gaza, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffith, said yesterday, adding that a special tribunal may be needed to bring accountability, Middle East Monitor said on Tuesday.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Griffith said that there are no indications that the Israeli attack in southern Gaza is more precise than in the north. “I’ve been disappointed … We were promised this. The Americans did a lot of diplomacy on this. The truth of the matter is we have not seen it at all in the south. On the contrary, we’ve seen it grow more.”
The UN official said that the number of deaths from diseases in Gaza is higher than deaths resulting from fighting and air strikes. However, he added: “We’ve yet to see what’s under the rubble. These estimates of [around 18,000] dead — once you start digging under the rubble, the statistics change radically. In the case of [February’s] Turkish earthquake, the number of those dead doubled.”
Aid deliveries have also been hampered as a result of Israel’s indiscriminate bombing campaign: “We do not have places of safety from which to operate — where people can gather safely to receive aid and be protected,” he explained.
Since 7 October, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza, killing approximately 19,000 Palestinians and injuring 51,000 others; the majority children and women. The aggression also caused massive destruction of infrastructure and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.
