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UN Aid Official Questions World's 'Humanity' as Gaza War Rages

Israeli soldiers disembark off an armored vehicle as they take position during an army operation in Tulkarm in the north of the occupied West Bank on August 29, 2024. (Photo by Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP)
Israeli soldiers disembark off an armored vehicle as they take position during an army operation in Tulkarm in the north of the occupied West Bank on August 29, 2024. (Photo by Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP)
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UN Aid Official Questions World's 'Humanity' as Gaza War Rages

Israeli soldiers disembark off an armored vehicle as they take position during an army operation in Tulkarm in the north of the occupied West Bank on August 29, 2024. (Photo by Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP)
Israeli soldiers disembark off an armored vehicle as they take position during an army operation in Tulkarm in the north of the occupied West Bank on August 29, 2024. (Photo by Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP)

A top UN aid official on Thursday questioned "what has become of our basic humanity," as the war in Gaza rages and humanitarian operations struggle to respond.
Joyce Msuya, acting head of the UN's humanitarian office (OCHA), said that "we cannot plan more than 24 hours in advance because we struggle to know what supplies we will have, when we will have them or where we will be able to deliver."
"Civilians are hungry. They are thirsty. They are sick. They are homeless. They have been pushed beyond... what any human being should bear," she told the Security Council.
Msuya's comments came after the UN had to halt the movement of aid and aid workers within Gaza on Monday due to a new Israeli evacuation order for the Deir al-Balah area, which had become a hub for its workers, AFP reported.
"More than 88 percent of Gaza's territory has come under an (Israeli) order to evacuate at some point," Msuya said, adding that civilians, "in a state of limbo," were being forced into an area equivalent to just 11 percent of the Gaza Strip.
"The evacuation orders appear to defy the requirements of international humanitarian law," she added.
Israel's war against Palestinian group Hamas has come under increasing scrutiny as the civilian death toll rises, but international powers including the United States have failed so far to help negotiate a ceasefire.
The current fighting was sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,602 people in Gaza, according to the territory's health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
"What we have witnessed over the past 11 months... calls into question the world's commitment to the international legal order that was designed to prevent these tragedies," Msuya said.
"It forces us to ask: what has become of our basic sense of humanity?"
Calling on the Security Council and wider international community to use its leverage to end the war, Msuya urged the release of hostages and "a sustained ceasefire in Gaza."

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Salvage of Stricken Oil Tanker in Red Sea Expected in Coming Days, Say Sources

A handout photo made available by EUNAVFOR Aspides shows smoke rising from the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion following Yemen's Houthis attacks, in the Red Sea, 28 August 2024. EPA/EUNAVFOR ASPIDES
A handout photo made available by EUNAVFOR Aspides shows smoke rising from the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion following Yemen's Houthis attacks, in the Red Sea, 28 August 2024. EPA/EUNAVFOR ASPIDES
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Salvage of Stricken Oil Tanker in Red Sea Expected in Coming Days, Say Sources

A handout photo made available by EUNAVFOR Aspides shows smoke rising from the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion following Yemen's Houthis attacks, in the Red Sea, 28 August 2024. EPA/EUNAVFOR ASPIDES
A handout photo made available by EUNAVFOR Aspides shows smoke rising from the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion following Yemen's Houthis attacks, in the Red Sea, 28 August 2024. EPA/EUNAVFOR ASPIDES

A salvage operation to recover a Greek registered oil tanker stranded in the Red Sea after an attack by Houthi militants is expected to start in the coming days, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Friday.

"What was decided yesterday is an initial game plan, of the operation starting in 48 hours," one of the sources said.

A second source said the operation was likely to be complex, since Houthis had rigged the Sounion with explosives.

At stake is the safe removal of a tanker laden with about 1 million barrels of crude that if spilled could cause an environmental catastrophe in an area that is particularly dangerous to access. Efforts are being made to speed up the process, sources said.

A potential oil spill of 2.2 nautical miles (4.1 km) in length has been detected in the area matching the location of the Sounion in the Red Sea, Greece said in a letter circulated through the United Nations' shipping agency on Friday.

"Greece urges all nations and all actors involved to assist in preventing the environmental hazard and resolving the situation the soonest possible," Greece said in the letter dated Aug. 29 and published on Friday.

Yemen's Houthi militants carried out multiple assaults, including planting bombs on the already disabled 900-foot (274.2-meter) Sounion, which is operated by Athens-based Delta Tankers. On Wednesday, the Iran-aligned militants said they would allow salvage crews to tow the ship - which has been on fire since Aug. 23 - to safety.

The sources said the priority of the operation - whether to tow the vessel to a port or arrange a transfer of its cargo - depended on an inspection of the vessel.

"It is not an easy task, transferring the oil cargo to another ship, when there are explosives on it," said one of the sources. "In any case, (EU monitoring mission) ASPIDES ships will protect and escort the vessel to a safe port."

"Delta Tankers is doing everything it can to move the vessel (and cargo). For security reasons, we are not in a position to comment further," a spokesperson for the tanker operator said.

There had been conflicting accounts earlier in the week over whether the Sounion had started leaking its cargo.

The ASPIDES mission said it had not, while the US later clarified initial comments to say some of the spillage was not from the cargo, but from the vessel itself and where it had been hit.

If a spill occurs, it has the potential to be among the largest from a ship in recorded history.

"Houthis have agreed to allow its towing because at the end of the day any environmental disaster would affect their region," said a shipping industry source.