UN appoints a former Dutch deputy premier and Mideast expert as its Gaza humanitarian coordinator

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Sigrid Kaag, the Netherlands’ former deputy prime minister and a Mideast knowledgeable, was appointed the U.N. coordinator for humanitarian assist to war-torn Gaza, the United Nations chief introduced om Tuesday.

The announcement by U.N. Secretary-Common Antonio Guterres follows the Safety Council’s adoption of a decision on Friday requesting him to expeditiously appoint a senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, the place greater than 2 million civilians are in determined want of meals, water and drugs,

Guterres stated Kaag, who speaks fluent Arabic and 5 different languages, “brings a wealth of expertise in political, humanitarian and improvement affairs in addition to in diplomacy” to her new put up. She is anticipated to start out on Jan. 8.

“She is going to facilitate, coordinate, monitor, and confirm humanitarian aid consignments to Gaza,” he stated, including that Kaag will even set up a U.N. mechanism to speed up assist deliveries “via states which aren’t get together to the battle.”

Gaza’s total 2.3 million inhabitants is in meals disaster, with 576,000 individuals at catastrophic or hunger ranges and the chance of famine is “rising every day,” in accordance with a report launched final Thursday by 23 U.N. and nongovernmental organizations. It blamed the widespread starvation on inadequate assist getting into Gaza.

Israel stopped all deliveries of meals, water, drugs and gasoline into Gaza after the militant Hamas group’s Oct. 7 incursion into southern Israel that killed about 1,200 individuals.

The Israel-Hamas warfare has up to now killed greater than 20,900 individuals in Gaza, two-thirds of them ladies and kids, in accordance with the Well being Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants among the many lifeless.

After U.S. strain, Israel allowed a trickle of assist in via Egypt, however U.N. companies say that for weeks, solely 10% of meals wants has been getting into Gaza. Final week, Israel opened the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza and truck site visitors elevated however an Israeli strike on Thursday morning on the Palestinian facet of the crossing stopped assist pickups, the U.N. company for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, stated.

Kaag has for years labored within the Center East, together with within the Palestinian territories. She began working for the United Nations in 1994 in Sudan and has labored for UNRWA and as regional director for the Mideast for the U.N. kids’s company UNICEF.

She additionally served as assistant director of the U.N. Improvement Program, headed the U.N. mission to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons, and was U.N. particular envoy for Lebanon till October 2017.

Kaag then turned minister for commerce and improvement within the Dutch authorities, and in 2018 she turned the nation’s first feminine international minister. Most just lately, she served as deputy prime minister and the primary feminine minister of finance from January 2022.

In July, she introduced she was leaving Dutch politics due to “hate, intimidation and threats” that put “a heavy burden on my household.” She advised the web site Euronews that after changing into finance minister and deputy prime minister she acquired many dying threats, however probably the most scary was when a person confirmed up at her residence shouting and waving a burning torch.

“You don’t know what’s going to occur, and the protection of your loved ones is clearly of the very best precedence,” Kaag, a mom of 4, advised Euronews in October. “For me it was tough, however bearable. It was totally different for my household. I at all times hearken to them, and their opinion counts greater than the rest on this planet.”