UN wants IDF hotline for Gaza aid

The United Nations needs a direct hotline to Israeli forces fighting in Gaza to combat mistrust and deliver aid safely and effectively, the outgoing UN humanitarian coordinator insists.

Rather than going through liaison bodies, the UN and other humanitarian actors “need to be speaking to people who are firing guns,” Jamie McGoldrick tells a press briefing in Geneva.

The Israel Defense Forces and humanitarian groups in Gaza need to understand each other better, he says following a final visit to the Palestinian territory at the end of a three-month posting as interim humanitarian coordinator in the Palestinian territories.

“If we have a serious security incident, we don’t have a hotline,” he says, speaking by video link from Jerusalem.

“The IDF have never worked with humanitarian organizers before in this type of environment. They don’t understand how we function, they don’t understand our language and what our purpose is. And we don’t understand their expectations.

“There’s a degree of mistrust and misunderstanding that we have to address.

“We want to work with them differently.”

He says agencies had been warning Israel about the flawed notification system before the April 1 fatal attack on staff from the World Central Kitchen charity.

“We’ve been asking for a couple of things since day one,” McGoldrick says.

“We don’t deal directly with the IDF. We need to be speaking to people who are firing guns and controlling weaponry and we have to build up an understanding.”

“The deconfliction system and the notification system are not fit for purpose.

“We have to have a hotline and the ability to speak to them.”