Ashraf AboArafe
Ambassador Ahmed Abu Zeid, the official spokesman and Director of the Public Diplomacy Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated that Mr. Sameh Shukri, Minister of Foreign Affairs, received Ms. Sigrid Kach, the United Nations Chief Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs and Reconstruction in the Gaza Strip, on March 4.
The official spokesman stated that Minister Shukri was keen to learn from the UN official about developments in work to activate the UN mechanism established in accordance with Security Council Resolution 2720 to facilitate, coordinate and monitor the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip, and how to overcome the existing obstacles that prevent it from being able to implement its mandate after more than two months. From the adoption of the Security Council resolution.
In this context, Shukri stressed the humanitarian and legal responsibility that the Security Council bears to ensure the full implementation of the provisions of Resolution 2720, and to put pressure on Israel to comply with the provisions of international law and remove the obstacles it places in the process of entering aid, including facilitating the use of all available roads into and into the Gaza Strip. Including border crossings, and using the most direct routes for aid to reach those who need it.
The Foreign Ministry spokesman explained that Minister Shukri and the UN official discussed in depth the deteriorating humanitarian conditions that befell all areas of Gaza, under the practices of starvation, targeting of civilians, humanitarian aid convoys, and the Israeli siege. In this context, Mr. Sameh Shukri stressed the necessity of achieving an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, and enforcing the calm before the month of Ramadan, so that the flow of humanitarian aid and relief materials can be increased in quantities sufficient for the needs of the residents of the Gaza Strip.
Ambassador Ahmed Abu Zeid added that Minister Shukri noted the humanitarian risks resulting from systematic attempts to target the work of UNRWA, and the suspension of funding by some donors to the agency in the midst of this humanitarian crisis, as he stressed the need to abandon this path and not to push the agency into narrow political accommodations. The importance of fully resuming the agency’s funding to enable it to perform its indispensable tasks in providing vital services to the Palestinians in accordance with its UN mandate.
For her part, the UN official expressed her appreciation for the important and pivotal role that Egypt has played since the beginning of the crisis to push the implementation of the truce and reduce the crisis in the Gaza Strip, as well as providing and facilitating the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, including the existing cooperation between the Egyptian Red Crescent and international relief agencies. , stressing its keenness to continue consultation and coordination with the Egyptian side to ensure the implementation of its tasks related to increasing the implementation of aid to the sector.
