Photo: Collected

UNITED NATIONS, United States, May  28, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Palestinians
living in Gaza "deserve more than survival," the United Nations envoy for the
Middle East told the Security Council on Wednesday, as Israel's war there
enters its 600th day.

Israel stepped up its military offensive in Gaza, ignited by an attack by
Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023, earlier this month, while
mediators push for a ceasefire that remains elusive.

The issue of aid has come sharply into focus amid a hunger crisis after
Israel imposed a full blockade on Gaza for over two months, before allowing
supplies in at a trickle last week.

"Since the resumption of hostilities in Gaza, the already horrific
existence of civilians has only sunk further into the abyss. This is manmade,"
Sigrid Kaag, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace
Process, told the Council.
"Death is their companion," she continued. "It's not life, it's not hope.
The people of Gaza deserve more than survival. They deserve a future."

The aid that is now coming in "is comparable to a lifeboat after the ship
has sunk," she said.

Kaag warned that there could be no "sustainable peace" in the Middle East
without a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, adding that the West
Bank also is on a "dangerous trajectory."

And she called for collective action to revive a two-state solution, saying
that a high-level international conference in June presents a "critical
opportunity."

"It must launch a concrete path towards ending the occupation and realizing
the two-state solution," she said.

When speaking of people in Gaza, "the words empathy, solidarity and support
have lost their meaning," Kaag said.

"We should not become accustomed to the number of people killed or injured.
These are daughters, mothers, and young children whose lives have been
shattered. All have a name, all had a future, all had dreams and aspirations."

- 'Why didn't I die?' -

The UN Security Council also heard the harrowing testimony of an American
surgeon on Wednesday, a few weeks after his return from Gaza.

"I am here because I have witnessed what is happening in Gaza with my own
eyes, especially to children, and I cannot pretend not to have seen it. You
too, cannot claim ignorance," said Dr Feroze Sidhwa.

The medical system in Gaza has not failed, he said. "It has been
systematically dismantled through a sustained military campaign that has
willfully violated international humanitarian law."

Children are "supposed to be protected," he said, but "in Gaza, those
protections are simply gone."

"Most of my patients were pre-teen children, their bodies shattered by
explosions and torn by flying metal. Many died. Those who lived often awoke to
find their entire families gone," he said.

"According to the War Child Alliance, nearly half of Gaza's children are
suicidal," he said.

"They ask, why didn't I die with my sister, my mother, my father? Not out
of extremism, but out of unbearable grief. I wonder if any member of this
Council has ever met a five-year-old child who no longer wants to live."
The Israeli ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, blamed Hamas for the
situation in Gaza.

"There is suffering in Gaza, but the blame is on the shoulders of Hamas ...
so they will continue to be suffering until Hamas will understand that they
will not stay in Gaza," he told reporters.