DAVOS: The humanitarian situation in Gaza, especially for children, is “catastrophic,” a senior UNICEF official said during a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday.
Kitty van der Heijden, deputy executive director of partnerships at the agency, said nowhere was safe for those trapped in the middle of the battle between Hamas and Israeli forces.
Children in Gaza were facing the threat of “three Ds,” she said: death from the air, disease from dirty water and deprivation of basic necessities such as food.
“We need urgent, collective action to really address the situation for children on the ground,” she said.
“As we have said before at UNICEF, Gaza is a graveyard for children.”
Palestinian businessman Samer Kouhry, who heads the main power company in Palestine, said Gaza could not just rely on international aid support but that the private sector in Palestine had also to step up.
Among several proposals to solve the humanitarian crisis, he said European countries, after an agreement with the Israeli government, could run and staff hospitals with volunteers in Gaza so that urgently needed treatment could be delivered.
“Choose a hospital in the north and one in the south, (let in) European doctors and nurses, and more importantly European medicines, let them run it,” he said. “This way, the Israelis cannot claim it is a military operation.”
Khoury also said a UN task force should be assembled to work with Israeli and Palestinian officials to ensure a consistent supply of water to Gaza, and if allowed, Egypt could work with the Israelis and Palestinians to restore power to the enclave.
WEF Managing Director Mirak Dusek, who chaired the panel, rejected claims that the conference was not taking the Palestinian crisis seriously enough through its selection of speakers and delegates, and pointed to a sizable Arab contingent who were making the Gaza crisis their main priority in Davos.
“It is a very raw moment, I can assure you, that for us this (situation) is extremely important,” he said.
“I am very happy that we have a lot of stakeholders among the Palestinians, among the Israelis, that have engaged with us.”
