The UNRWA Director for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East, Sam Rose, has called on the German government to take a more active role in the Gaza Strip. In an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Rose emphasized that Germany must “do the right thing” and acknowledge that inaction has consequences that will be felt for a long time to come.
Rose criticized the disparity between Germany’s rhetorical condemnation of Israel’s actions and its lack of concrete political action. He suggested that Germany could utilize a range of instruments, including sanctions and the International Criminal Court, in addition to protests, to address the situation in Gaza.
The Gaza Strip has been largely destroyed since the start of the war, with hundreds of thousands of people displaced and tens of thousands of Palestinians killed. When asked if he shared the accusation that Israel is breaching international law, Rose replied, “Since the war began, around 16,000 children have been killed. I think that speaks for itself.”
Furthermore, the new food distribution system established by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is forcing people to move in order to meet their basic needs. Since the US-Israeli organization began distributing food, there have been a series of fatalities and injuries among the Palestinian population in recent days. “UNRWA has been working in Gaza for 75 years. In all those years, there has never been a single incident like this one” said Rose. The people of the Gaza Strip are on the brink of a famine.