UN names Gaza humanitarian relief coordinator 

The United Nations yesterday named a coordinator to oversee humanitarian relief shipments into Gaza as part of a UN Security Council resolution adopted on Friday to boost humanitarian aid, Reuters reports.

Sigrid Kaag, the Netherlands’ outgoing finance minister, will be the senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza starting 8 January, the UN said in a statement.

“In this role she will facilitate, coordinate, monitor and verify humanitarian relief consignments for Gaza,” the UN said. She will also establish a “mechanism” to accelerate aid into Gaza through countries not involved with the conflict.

A veteran UN diplomat, Kaag previously headed an international team of weapons experts charged with overseeing the elimination of Syria’s chemical stockpile.

In July she announced she would leave government because of the increasingly “toxic” environment for politicians in the Netherlands.

“We look forward to coordinating closely with Ms. Kaag and the UN Office for Project Services on efforts to accelerate and streamline the delivery of live-saving humanitarian relief to Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a written statement.

Friday’s Security Council resolution stopped short of calling for a ceasefire after a week of vote delays and intense negotiations to avoid a United States veto.

It calls for “urgent steps to immediately allow safe, unhindered, and expanded humanitarian access and to create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.”

Amid global outrage over a rising Gaza death toll in 11 weeks of war on Gaza and a worsening humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave, the US abstained to allow the 15-member council to adopt a resolution drafted by the United Arab Emirates.

Read: Palestine urges UN to declare famine in Gaza amid Israeli onslaught