Anger and looting could push aid workers out of Gaza, says UN official
Rising anger in Gaza fuelled by hunger and desperation to survive could make it dangerous for aid workers to operate, as people struggle and die for food and aid, a senior UN official told The National.
'I witnessed families begging much more than I saw before and I could imagine,' said Nestor Owomuhangi, the United Nations Population Fund's representative for Palestine. 'They're doing it not because they want to, but because they don't have anything in their households.'
On his fifth and most recent trip to the enclave, Mr Owomuhangi said people's anger has fuelled them to demand answers.
'Is there nobody in the entire world that can stop this?' a gynaecologist asked Mr Owomuhangi at one of the UN -backed facilities in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
He did not have an answer that could satisfy her, after nearly 55,000 people have been killed and more than 126,000 injured since the war began, hospitals have been destroyed and people have been shot and killed at US- Israeli aid distribution points.
In the backdrop of the chaos, looting is on the rise. But Mr Owomuhangi agreed with other UN officials that the looters are simply desperate people struggling to secure food for their children and their loved ones.
'These are not criminals or people who want to attack the UN and other NGOs. But we're seeing looting attacks, like at a recent health facility, that are unprecedented,' he said.
UN sidelined
The UN has been sidelined by the US-Israeli Gaza Humanitarian Foundation which is running an aid operation in the Strip that has left dozens of people killed and injured.
'At least with us, people know they're safe,' Mr Owomuhangi said, adding that people endangering their lives to get aid run the risk of starving to death if they do not.
Despite running out of supplies and being paralysed from carrying out their work after decades, the UN has maintained that it will remain in Gaza.
But the rising threats from looters and their impact concerns Mr Owomuhangi.
'My worry is that soon we'll be seeing desperate people going into our guesthouses and looting our property, which will make it extremely difficult for the international community to stay in Gaza,' he said.
People are taking items that they can sell, he said, including air conditioners and tyres, as prices for basic good soar.
'We have staff who have run out of food completely. A 25kg bag of wheat flour costs $400,' he said.
Regardless of the chaos and the risks of remaining in Gaza, Mr Owomuhangi hopes that the situation is contained long before the UN and groups like it are forced to leave the strip entirely.
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