UN appoints Dutch minister to coordinate humanitarian aid to Gaza

His task will be titanic. The UN announced the appointment of Sigrid Kaag, Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands, as coordinator of humanitarian aid and reconstruction in Gaza on Tuesday, December 26.

Sigrid Kaag, who is due to take office on January 8, “facilitate, coordinate, monitor and verify shipments of humanitarian aid to Gaza”, said the spokesperson for Secretary General Antonio Guterres in a press release. It will also have the task of putting “establishes a United Nations mechanism to accelerate shipments of humanitarian aid to Gaza through states not parties to the conflict”.

The appointment follows the adoption of a resolution by the UN Security Council on Friday, which demands the delivery “in large scale” humanitarian aid to Gaza. The international organization and its agencies regularly warn of the humanitarian situation “terrible” in the Gaza Strip: the war has forced 1.9 million people to flee their homes, or 85% of the population, famine threatens in the territory and most hospitals are out of service.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, promised to“intensify the fighting” in the days to come to destroy Palestinian Hamas, responsible for the attacks that left around 1,140 people dead in Israel on October 7. Nearly three months later, Israeli strikes have already left 20,915 dead, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health – a toll that franceinfo cannot confirm, due to lack of independent verification on site.