When UN and its agencies lack much agency

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on 9 October that he was "deeply distressed" by the announcement that Israel intended to impose a comprehensive siege on the Gaza Strip following an attack by Hamas two days earlier. 

"I am deeply distressed by the announcement that Israel will initiate a complete siege of the Gaza Strip, nothing allowed in — no electricity, food, or fuel," Guterres said at the time, aptly showcasing a sense of helplessness, in spite of being the head of what is widely seen as the "beacon of hope and protection" for millions of people worldwide. 

After two months from the onset of the initial Hamas attack, the helplessness of the UN is now more evident than ever, as the "world's only truly global organisation" has struggled to live up to expectations in offering aid to the suffering people in Gaza, including children and women, let alone facilitating a lasting ceasefire. 

The current state of affairs has once again brought attention to the UN Security Council's (UNSC) unjust structure, while also demonstrating that the UN agencies do not actually possess the kind of authority they are believed to have. 

First and foremost, the adoption of resolutions critical of Israel's activities has been seriously impeded by the major nations' use of their veto power at the UNSC, especially the US' support for Israel. 

Notably, UNSC stands out as the UN body wielding the most tangible influence and impact, as its decisions hold binding authority, extending to both member and non-member states.

However, when it comes to issues pertaining to Israel and Palestine, a total of 36 draft resolutions have been rejected by the US, Russia, China, the UK, and France — the five permanent members of the UNSC since 1945. 

Most of these resolutions were written to offer a framework for peace in the long-running conflict between Israel and Palestine. They encompassed calls for Israel to adhere to international law, support self-determination for Palestinian statehood, and condemnation of Israel's displacement of Palestinians and settlement construction in occupied Palestinian territory.

For example, the US rejected a resolution calling for "humanitarian pauses" and Israel to withdraw its evacuation order for northern Gaza on 18 October, with the country's ambassador to the UN saying, "Yes, resolutions are important, and yes, this council must speak out. But the actions we take must be informed by the facts on the ground and support direct diplomacy that can save lives."

While such political dynamics have constrained the UN from taking decisive actions and fostered a perception of bias, thereby eroding its credibility as an impartial mediator, it has also prompted the question of why a select few countries should unfairly wield the veto power.

Additionally, the war in Ukraine has also had a significant impact on the UN's ability to address the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, as the tensions between major powers, particularly Russia and the US, have led to increased diplomatic friction at the UN. 

Russia's frequent use of its veto power and disruptive actions, such as scheming with Mali and withdrawing from certain agreements, has contributed to a sense of disunity within the UN.

Amidst all these, the UN Secretary-General further found himself caught in the diplomatic crossfire after saying in an address to the Security Council on 24 October that Hamas' attack on Israel "did not happen in a vacuum."

While Guterres afterwards denied any suggestion that his words could be interpreted as justification for what he called Hamas's "acts of terror," his comments certainly did not go down well with Israel, who called on Guterres to resign and reduced its cooperation with UN humanitarian officials. 

This course of action has exacerbated the vulnerability of UN agencies working in Gaza, which had already been facing significant funding constraints for their humanitarian operations with many Western donors reducing their aid allocations while spending significant sums on military and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.

The UN agency that unquestionably bore the brunt of the impact is the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) — the largest UN agency in Gaza that cares for Palestinian refugees and their descendants across the Middle East. 

At least 112 UN officials have been killed in Gaza from heavy Israeli bombing so far since 7 October. Among them, 111 were affiliated with UNRWA, confirmed the agency to The Business Standard, adding that "the actual number is likely to be much higher."

According to Guterres, the number of casualties this time around is "more than in any comparable period in the history of our organisation." 

What is even more astonishing is that the majority of them died at home, typically during strikes that killed members of their families, rather than in the line of duty. 

The victims were all Palestinians working in various professional roles such as teachers, school principals, warehouse workers, engineers, software developers, gynaecologists, and staff safety managers. 

While the prospect of abrupt death looms large for the agency's employees, it is also suffering its worst operational and financial crises in its 73-year history.

The agency's schools and other institutions are overcrowded with displaced Gazans, and the Israeli siege has so severely interrupted its operations that its future is now hanging in the balance, with concerns such as how long it will continue to function remaining unattended. 

In addition, the agency entered 2023 with a $75 million debt and requested $1.6 billion in donations for its annual budget. However, by the time the conflict began on 7 October, it had received less than half of that amount. As the battle continues in full swing following the collapse of a truce of seven days, it has lately requested an additional $481 million. 

In late October, it became evident that the residents of Gaza, too had grown frustrated with UNRWA, as thousands of people forcibly entered one of the agency's warehouses, seizing flour and other essential items "in a sign they had reached breaking point". 

On top of all these, most Israelis view the UNRWA as "an obstacle to peace," making the agency's operation in the Gaza Strip even more challenging. 

Although the agency's mandate never included resolving the issue of Palestinian refugees, its very existence is seen by the Palestinians as an official admission that their displacement is still a problem that needs to be fixed. 

On the other hand, Israel has a problem with the fact that the UNRWA expanded the definition of Palestinian refugees to include all descendants of the original male refugees, with the Palestinians born in the West Bank and Gaza also being registered as refugees.

As a result, Israelis accuse UNRWA of perpetuating "the Palestinian hopes of effectively destroying the Jewish state."

Even while speaking to the UNSC in November, Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan made the claim that "many UNRWA workers in Gaza are themselves members of Hamas."

Furthermore, in a particularly villainous move, when the UN agency issued a warning via an X post in late October that operations would cease without fuel delivery, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reposted it, asserting that Hamas fighters had over 500,000 litres of fuel in tanks within besieged Gaza. "Ask Hamas if you can have some," the IDF mockingly suggested. 

Aside from this, the Israeli military time and again barred petrol from entering Gaza, stating that Hamas takes UNRWA fuel for its military infrastructure. 

Earlier, back in June 2017, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also called for the destruction of the agency, alleging it was "stoking anti-Israeli sentiments and perpetuating the Palestinian refugee problem." 

And so, even though UNRWA is officially a UN agency, the Israelis do not care when its employees are killed by their bombardment, and the UN has not yet taken any significant action to denounce Israel — instead choosing to merely express its "grief" over the deaths of its staff. 

Other UN agencies find themselves in a similarly powerless position in Gaza, even though the extent of casualties may not accurately reflect the severity of the situation.

So far, at least 281 health workers have died in Gaza while on duty, of which one was from the UN's World Health Organization (WHO). More significantly, WHO is the latest UN agency to get entangled in a dispute with Israeli authorities. 

"Today, WHO received notification from the Israel Defense Forces that we should remove our supplies from our medical warehouse in southern Gaza within 24 hours, as ground operations will put it beyond use," wrote the WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a post on X on 4 December. 

"We appeal to Israel to withdraw the order, and take every possible measure to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and humanitarian facilities," he added. 

Then, the Israeli army snapped back on 5 December, saying it never issued such a warning. 

"The truth is that we didn't ask you to evacuate the warehouses and we also made it clear [and in writing] to the relevant UN representatives," COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs, said on X.

"From a UN official we would expect, at least, to be more accurate," it added.

Nonetheless, the dispute is unlikely to resolve anytime soon, as the WHO has apparently taken it seriously enough to begin moving items out of the warehouse, which serves 11 hospitals in southern Gaza.

It is also predicted that the dispute could escalate into a larger diplomatic squabble, as it has been unusual since 7 October to have a UN agency and Israeli officials calling each other out online. 

That said, the UN agencies, including UNRWA and WHO as well as United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), and the World Food Programme (WFP), have been repeatedly calling for a humanitarian ceasefire, along with "immediate, unrestricted humanitarian access throughout Gaza to allow humanitarian actors to reach civilians in need, save lives and prevent further human suffering."

However, that is just about it. When their parent organisation, the UN itself, has virtually no authority to ensure peace and protection in Gaza and for the people of Palestine, they scarcely have anything else to do besides relaying the same words again and again.