A displaced Palestinian boy walks amid tents flooded by heavy rain, at a makeshift camp in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip set up by people who fled the ongoing battles between Israel and Hamas militants, on Jan. 27.-/Getty Images
As the man responsible for keeping thousands of United Nations staff and their families safe, Gilles Michaud has been to war zones around the world, and he says what he’s witnessed in Gaza is the worst he’s ever seen.
Mr. Michaud, a Canadian who’s the undersecretary-general for safety and security, was recently in Rafah, a city in southern Gaza. On the 24-hour trip, he saw firsthand the “unbearable” living conditions of Palestinians, the challenges of moving desperately needed aid, and the security risks staff face.
Mr. Michaud, who is also a former RCMP deputy commissioner, is responsible for the safety and security of 180,000 UN staff and 450,000 of their family members in 130 countries, as well as UN buildings. That task has become more difficult after Israel’s accusation that a dozen UN employees – all of whom worked with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) – took part in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack.
The UN fired nine of the accused workers, two are reportedly dead and one is still being identified. The UN also launched an internal investigation. In response, more than a dozen countries – including Canada – have suspended their funding to UNRWA.
On Monday, Reuters reported that an obtained Israeli document said their country’s intelligence showed at least 190 UNRWA workers were Hamas or Islamic Jihad operatives, but not did not provide evidence.
UNRWA’s 13,000 staff in Gaza provide humanitarian aid to about two million people. Mr. Michaud said the implication of suspending aid for UNRWA will be detrimental to the delivery of humanitarian aid. He said it’s the only organization with the capacity to deliver at the scale that’s required.
“There is no other organization that can replace UNRWA and the lifesaving work that it is doing right now in Gaza,” he said.
Mr. Michaud is not responsible for the safety and security of locally engaged UNRWA staff, only UNRWA international employees. He said UNRWA decided long ago that it would have its own security system. He is responsible, though, for all other locally engaged staff for UN entities in Gaza.
Mr. Michaud said the funding freeze would also affect the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, where the agency also works. He said the notion that UNRWA staff participated in the Oct. 7 attacks is very problematic from a security perspective, because it potentially taints all UNRWA employees. He said he is particularly worried about ramifications in the West Bank.
In Rafah, where the population has swelled with Palestinians forced to flee the bombardment, Mr. Michaud said he saw makeshift shelters made of pieces of wood and tarps covering sidewalks.
After almost four months of conflict, 153 UN staff have been killed, the highest number of UN staff killed in any conflict or terrorist act in the past 12 years. A total of 237 UN buildings have been struck by gunfire, rockets and missiles. And getting aid to civilians has become increasingly dangerous.
But security risks for UN staff in Gaza go beyond the obvious, Mr. Michaud added. As well as physical danger, he said reputational and political risks associated with the UN’s ability to deliver aid were also evident.
In October, for instance, when Israel warned people living in northern Gaza to move south within 24 hours, the UN followed that advice. At the time, the move was viewed as the UN abandoning people. And that, coupled with the UN’s inability to deliver aid subject to Israeli blockades, puts his staff in a difficult position.
He said people in Rafah kicked their cars as they drove by and yelled obscenities. “It’s a real, real issue, even to the point where I’ve got my Palestinian staff that work in Gaza, when they go home at night, they take off the UN emblem on the cars.”
“Many Palestinians in Gaza blame the UN for not being able to receive humanitarian aid and for the ineffectiveness of the UN to be able to bring peace to Gaza,” he said, adding this is where community acceptance of the UN becomes a risk-mitigation measure.
However, he said while UN staff have been blamed for not doing enough, there are a number of challenges preventing their work.
Crucially, they are limited by not having enough room for their international staff in Rafah, and so they can’t increase their presence. Staff are currently living in cramped quarters, he said, sleeping on the floor in a common area for weeks at a time.
Another challenge, Mr. Michaud said, is that trucks carrying aid are held up at the border because the Israel Defence Forces don’t allow anything in that could be seen as being “dual use,” which may end up in the hands of Hamas. If a truck has food items but also non-food items that are questioned, he said, the entire truck may be turned back.
Even when a truck does make it over the border, Mr. Michaud said, its contents may later be held up without explanation. During his recent trip to Rafah, a delivery of medical equipment that was intended for northern Gaza was ultimately rejected.
Israel has previously denied blocking aid.
When UN workers are operating in active conflict zones, they use “deconfliction,” which means they notify the parties involved of where they are living, working and will be going on missions. But, Mr. Michaud said, it doesn’t always work.
“We’ve recently had some of our convoys that have been shot at by IDF,” he said, explaining this resulted from a breakdown in communication.
Mr. Michaud said the UN’s presence in Gaza is essential, and an important security risk mitigation measure: “Because as soon we leave, how are we able to go back and convince the communities that we’re able to help them?”
With reports from Reuters