UN Relief Chief Fletcher Urges Immediate Entry of Winter Supplies into Gaza: 'No More Delay'
UN News reported on November 11 that the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, expressed deep concern about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, as UN member states and partners have repeatedly delayed sending their support to the Strip.
Fletcher said foreign ministers and partners had assured him of support, but had also repeatedly said progress would be hard until after Israeli elections. Now, he said, he is being told to wait for the formation of a government. He stressed that, under international humanitarian law, this is not an acceptable excuse, as the international community and the Board of Peace have made clear.
With winter underway, people living in Gaza face ever-harsher conditions, including freezing temperatures and harsh storms that collapse or flood the tents thousands are living in. Fletcher said such weather is not a threat where decent shelter exists, and would not be such a threat had the UN been able to supply decent tents and essential winter kit.
He said the UN had a clear plan for the supplies that need to reach Gaza, not in weeks but weeks ago, with each delay costing lives. The list includes durable shelter, warm clothes, blankets, bedding and safe heating solutions, as well as generators, fuel, engine oil, spare parts, and equipment to pump out water, remove debris and clear explosive ordnance. He urged: no more delay, open all the crossings and not just one, let vital NGO partners work, allow commercial markets to function, stop the collective punishment, fund the plan, and end the predictable, preventable suffering.
The UN's labour agency, the International Labour Organization (ILO), on Wednesday called on international partners to increase financial support for a jobs-led recovery plan in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, aimed at laying the conditions for long-term resilience and stability. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov said humanitarian assistance alone cannot restore livelihoods, essential services, or the institutional foundations needed for sustainable recovery.
In Gaza alone, 252,000 jobs were lost between the third quarters of 2023 and 2025, unemployment reached 85.1 per cent, and labour income losses totalled $2.77 billion, with women and young people facing particularly limited prospects, the ILO said. Its Decent Work and Recovery Programme has over the past three years helped generate approximately 130,000 paid workdays and contributed to social allowances reaching over 30,000 older persons and persons with disabilities. ILO Director-General Gilbert F. Houngbo said that behind every job lost is a person, a family and a future placed at risk.
(Source: United Nations)
Source: United Nations
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：加沙地带 Al-Mawasi 一带流离失所巴勒斯坦人居住的帐篷区航拍。Ashraf Amra 摄，联合国近东巴勒斯坦难民救济和工程处（UNRWA），CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: An aerial view of the Al-Mawasi area of the Gaza Strip, where displaced Palestinians live in tents. Photo by Ashraf Amra, UNRWA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO, via Wikimedia Commons.
