Mr. Éamonn Meehan:

I will address the question on aid. As a result of the blockade of Gaza, going back to 2007 or 2008, a huge UN system developed within the strip whereby approximately 600 trucks entered it every single day. Some 80% of the population of Gaza depended to some extent on food aid, other forms of aid and the provision of healthcare and education. All of that was provided within the UN system through UNRWA, UNICEF and the World Health Organization. As we keep hearing, the UN and international NGOs had more than 400 individual locations throughout the Gaza Strip where aid was distributed locally to people and families known to need assistance. That entire system has been completely and utterly destroyed. To their great credit, the UN agencies and many of the international NGOs continue to do everything they can to sustain some elements of that system with minimal support and minimal provisions.

What Israel has done is create an absolute abomination. It is saying it is providing aid to the people of Gaza in four locations and then shooting and killing people when they go to get that aid. It is provided at locations where most Palestinians do not live, so they have to travel. We have endless stories of people who have travelled 10 km, 20 km or 30 km to try to pick up food, sometimes not getting it, and then having to return home.

The aid system has been deliberately destroyed. UNRWA has been deliberately dismantled. That is a key component of the negotiations on a ceasefire, which we hope will be successful very soon. Without the UN and the NGOs being facilitated and without a massive influx of aid, including everything from fuel for incubators and water treatment plants to medicines, clean water, food and sanitary items, this will just continue and it is going to get worse. We see the situation of starving children.

We have figures from the most recent research that indicate that the death toll in Gaza is 40% higher than the current estimate of 58,000. I will provide the evidence to the committee.