There is no safe zone in Gaza, warns director of UNRWA Affairs in Gaza

UNRWA’s Scott Anderson described the humanitarian situation in Gaza as critical and called on all sides to respect civilian safe zones.

Transcript

00:00The humanitarian situation in Gaza Strip remains critical and could deteriorate further.

00:06That's according to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine, UNRWA.

00:12Speaking to Euronews in Brussels, the director of UNRWA in Gaza, Scott Anderson, called upon

00:17all parties to the conflict to respect the sanctity of safe places for civilians.

00:25Give us a full picture here.

00:26What is the situation?

00:28Well, there's nowhere, nowhere safe in Gaza.

00:31That's been said by many people, I would echo that.

00:33Including the safe zones.

00:35Including the safe zones.

00:36And unfortunately, all parties to the conflict are not respecting the sanctity of sites that

00:42should be safe for civilians, which includes hospitals and includes schools, both UNRWA

00:47and PA schools.

00:49And we would reiterate that call that all parties to the conflict respect the sanctity

00:53of those places so that civilians can find safety for themselves and for their families.

00:58Anderson also responded to past allegations that his agency was too lenient with Hamas,

01:03which the EU designates as a terrorist organization.

01:06He stated that UNRWA took swift action after discovering that some of its employees were

01:11linked to Hamas.

01:13Can you say today that UNRWA has thrown out all Hamas operatives?

01:18Well, no.

01:19I don't think anybody can say anything with certainty about any of their workforce anywhere.

01:25We have over 13,000 people.

01:28We do take the neutrality very seriously, as shown by the commissioner general's very

01:33swift action.

01:34But no, I can't with certainty say that's done.

01:37I don't have evidence of more.

01:39I can't say that.

01:40And if we did, we would take action.

01:43You can watch the full interview on the situation in Gaza on Thursday and online on Euronews.com.

01:49What's that?

01:50Unable to pull out of the situation.