Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza: Residents Cannot Be Saved with Exclusion of U.N.

Editorial

15:11 JST, June 13, 2025

Can the residents of the Palestinian territory of Gaza be saved if a U.N. organization, which is well-versed in the special circumstances of the Palestinian territory and has continued to provide support, is excluded? The true intentions of the United States and Israel must be called into question.

In late May, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), led by Israel and the United States, began distributing food and other supplies in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

For many years, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has distributed supplies to residents in Gaza and provided them with medical care and other services. But in January, Israel banned the UNRWA from operating in the country.

In addition, Israel did not allow other U.N. agencies and other organizations to deliver relief supplies to Gaza for 2½ months until mid-May. During this period, severe hunger spread in the area.

Although the GHF has begun distributing supplies, it has not led to an improvement in the situation.

There are only four distribution sites, mainly in southern Gaza. It is totally impossible to distribute supplies to the more than 2 million Gaza residents. In Rafah, hundreds of people were shot to death or injured for days in a row as they rushed to get supplies. The Israeli military was deployed near the sites.

While Israel pretends to have started support activities, in reality, it is probably using the distribution of supplies as a way to try to contain the residents of Gaza to a certain area and occupy the remaining areas.

Israel excluded the UNRWA from aid activities because it considers the agency to be one with the Islamist group Hamas, which is hostile toward Israel. However, the UNRWA has already expelled officials suspected of having ties to Hamas.

It is wrong for the United States to go along with Israel and hinder the activities of the United Nations. It would be reasonable for Washington to join U.N. organizations to promote humanitarian assistance and strengthen monitoring activities so that these activities are not used by Hamas.

International criticism has been intensified toward Israel, as it provides support while continuing its indiscriminate attacks.

Germany has traditionally defended Israel out of remorse for the Holocaust by Nazi Germany, but Chancellor Friedrich Merz has taken the unusual step of criticizing the Gaza attacks and said the attacks “can no longer be justified.”

The international community must increase pressure on Israel to realize the halt of the attacks and the provision of relief to residents.

A draft resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire was rejected at a U.N. Security Council meeting. This is because, even though 14 out of the 15 countries voted in favor of the draft, the United States vetoed it.

With the adoption of the resolution at a U.N. General Assembly meeting, the pressure for a ceasefire should be strengthened as a consensus of the international community. Japan also needs to do its utmost to achieve this.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, June 13, 2025)