The United Nations official who helps oversee emergency relief efforts demanded on Wednesday that the Security Council step up and take concrete action to protect aid workers, at a time when targeted violence against humanitarians in conflict zones is both alarmingly high and increasingly normalized.
The UNSC’s member states met to discuss Resolution 2730, which was adopted last year to uphold the safety and security of humanitarian staff operating in armed conflict. But almost one year and many more killings later, the UN’s deputy relief chief is drilling the council to actually put actions to words and hold perpetrators to account.
“Let us be clear: There is no shortage of robust international legal frameworks to protect humanitarian and UN workers,” Joyce Msuya told the council. “Human rights law and standards, conventions relating to the UN’s activities and personnel, and international humanitarian law together provide clear obligations to safeguard humanitarian personnel, assets and operations.”
“What is lacking is the political will to comply.”
The meeting occurred just a few days after crews from the UN humanitarian agency (OCHA) and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society recovered the bodies of 15 medics and emergency responders from a mass grave in southern Gaza. Israeli forces killed the workers several days earlier while they were trying to save lives, and the OCHA team on the ground recalled witnessing Israeli soldiers shoot fleeing civilians.
In a separate attack on March 19, Israeli forces killed a UN staffer and injured six others ― bringing the number of aid workers killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, to at least 408, which the UN says makes the Palestinian territory the most dangerous place for humanitarians ever.
“We extend our condolences to the families of the victims. We demand answers and call for justice,” Msuya said. “And since we are here today to discuss the protection of aid workers, I must ask this council: What are you going to do to help us find those answers and achieve justice, and avoid more killings?”
Last year was the deadliest on record for humanitarians, with 377 aid workers killed across 20 countries, and many more injured, kidnapped, attacked and arbitrarily detained. About 95% of those deaths are local humanitarians who Msuya described as pillars of international relief efforts.
“We have become numb to this violence,” Msuya said. “Being shot at is not ― I repeat, is not ― part of our job.”
As much as international aid workers remain unprotected in conflict zones, local aid workers are even more vulnerable. On top of facing death, injury or abduction, local humanitarian staff in regions like Palestine, Yemen and the Democratic Republic of the Congo also deal with disinformation campaigns that paint them as terrorists, putting a target on their back and normalizing any violence against them, all while receiving little to no media coverage.
“It’s an endless loop of blood, pain, death. And Gaza has become a death trap,” Jonathan Whittall, OCHA’s head for Palestine, told reporters on Wednesday. “We cannot accept – and as humanitarians, I need to emphasize this – that we cannot accept that Palestinian civilians are dehumanized to the point of being somehow unworthy of survival.”
“And yet today unfortunately marks one month without any supplies entering into Gaza. That’s one month of no food, no fuel, no aid, nothing. Nothing has entered,” he continued. “So 2.1 million people are trapped, bombed, starved – and the consequences are apparent to all of us that are here. It’s mostly apparent to the people that are living through this war.”
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Msuya reminded member states that they must protect humanitarians, ensure countries are abiding by international law, and to speak out when they’re not because “silence, inconsistency and selective outrage only embolden perpetrators.” The UNSC also has to actually follow through on imposing consequences to those who harm humanitarians “without exception,” she added.
“The Security Council should play a key role in pushing for accountability … by asking concerned governments to pursue justice and by following up with them,” Msuya said. “When national jurisdictions fail, the council can use international mechanisms, including by referring situations to the International Criminal Court.”
