On Wednesday 4 December, representatives of Médecins Sans Frontières, UNICEF and the Norwegian Refugee Council once again painted a harrowing picture of the chaos currently reigning in the Gaza Strip to MEPS of the European Parliament's Development Committee (DEVE).
As winter approaches, the organisations have reiterated their calls for greater action to tackle the humanitarian crisis.
“There hasn’t been a week since October where even half of the trucks needed entered Gaza”, lamented Jean Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council.
The former Norwegian diplomat urged the European Parliament to rely solely on information from humanitarian organisations active on the ground and “don’t believe Hamas, Islamic jihad (...) and Israel”. “Trust us!”, he stressed.
For the European Commission, Béatrice Miège, senior official responsible for humanitarian aid operations (DG ECHO), spoke about the EU’s mobilisation, which has included exceptional funding since October 2023 as well as an airlift of at least 61 flights.
In addition, the Commission is working with 17 humanitarian partners, including UNRWA, which received €38.5 million in funding from the EU in 2024, said Ms Miège.
“I would like to stress that all the humanitarian partners are working in security conditions that are totally unacceptable”, said the deputy head of unit, deploring the many casualties among humanitarian workers.
“Those responsible will have to be held to account”, she added to the MEPs present on Wednesday afternoon.
Among them, Charles Goerens (Renew Europe, Luxemburger) regretted the absence of UNRWA representatives at the discussion to allow the UN agency to defend itself against accusations of alleged infiltration by agents of the terrorist group Hamas .
On the left of the Chamber, Isabel Serra Sánchez (The Left, Spanish) called for additional funding for UNRWA.
“The European institutions do not regard Palestinians as human beings. If Mr Netanyahu is not brought to justice, there will be a real crisis in international law”, she said. (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)