Gaza is starving. Gaza is dying. Bombed, maimed, displaced, traumatised and bereaved, people teeter on the brink of survival in a man-made hell. Weak from hunger and nursing unimaginable horrors of their own, humanitarian workers try desperately to stem the tide of human misery. People in Gaza need life-saving supplies and safety. But all they get are the echo of promises.
At each new milestone, each new horror, we intone the same refrains.
We’re still calling for the protection of humanitarian workers when at least 520 have been killed, including nearly 360 of our own UNRWA colleagues.
Still calling for a ceasefire, humanitarian access including lifting the siege and the unconditional release of hostages and those arbitrarily detained.
Still calling for the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure when nearly all schools and hospitals have been damaged or destroyed.
Still advocating for representatives of the UN, international community and media to enter.
Still entreating access for food supplies.
But words do not feed hungry children. Action is a moral imperative, and international law must be respected. Gaza is no exception.
The consequences of inaction are devastating.
Gaza City's descent into famine could have been prevented. The trickle of supplies that have entered are a drop in the ocean of massive humanitarian needs.
Meanwhile thousands of tons of critical lifesaving aid languish outside Gaza. UNRWA alone has in its warehouses in Jordan and Egypt supplies to fill 6,000 trucks, but the Agency has been denied access to Gaza since 2 March 2025. They include food, food supplements for children, medicines, medical supplies, tents, blankets and hygiene kits.
The few humanitarian agencies that are still allowed to bring in some supplies must navigate Israel’s system of control. Its effects are every bit as deadly as the relentless airstrikes.
An array of multi-layered approvals is required at all stages – for operations, for items, for vehicles, for drivers. What may be allowed one day can be denied the next. What may be approved by one body, may be rejected by another.
When and if trucks finally make it through, there’s looting and lawlessness, desperation and despair.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has proved an abject failure, a deadly dehumanising demonstration of how not to provide aid. How can have we come to a point where people are killed in their droves while attempting to get food?
Airdrops are at best an emergency stop-gap last resort, albeit dangerous, expensive unpredictable and inefficient. Deploying them to circumvent bureaucratic obstructions merely entrenches the blockade, while doing little to prevent aid from falling into the wrong hands.
Humanitarian aid is much more than parcels of dried food. Conditions for life require a panoply of supplies and services that can’t simply be packaged into boxes. People need clean water, doctors to provide health consultations, nurses to administer vaccines, counsellors to deliver psychosocial support. Emergency shelters are run by teams, engineers repair water networks and maintain electricity generators. Real people collect the garbage and distribute shelter supplies. There must be no work arounds. Aid must be principled and reach people wherever they are at all times.
What’s being tested in Gaza is the law of the strongest. The most vulnerable – the elderly, weak, those with disabilities – don’t stand a chance in the frantic and degrading scrums. In an ever-shrinking operational space for the UN and humanitarian NGOs, the relief community in Gaza continues to do its utmost to provide aid, despite ongoing escalation and further displacement.
UNRWA forms the backbone of this aid effort. It’s estimated every person in Gaza has benefited from some form of the Agency’s assistance over the course of the war. And yet calls from Israel and the US for its closure prevail. Just as severe spinal injuries can result in paralysis, further erosion of UNRWA would immobilise Gaza’s humanitarian system, just as undermining UNRWA’s work has clearly contributed to the descent into famine.
What is happening in Gaza, what has been allowed to happen, is beyond unthinkable. This man-made crisis cannot be resolved by humanitarians or additional trucks alone; it requires political will, moral courage - and genuine accountability to change course.
It must not be optional for Europe’s partners and allies to uphold universal values, including human rights and respect for international law. Yet in the past months, there have not been any tangible improvements on the ground. The time for statements has long passed. The time for action is long overdue.
Marta Lorenzo is director of the UNRWA Representative Office for Europe.
Marta Lorenzo is director of the UNRWA Representative Office for Europe.