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UN spokesperson: Humanitarian cease-fire needed in ‘chaotic’ Gaza

  • Biden: US will airdrop humanitarian assistance into Gaza
  • UN spokesperson: An 'increase in the criminal gangs taking aid'
  • Without cease-fire, aid workers 'can't operate in a normal way'

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(NewsNation) — President Joe Biden has announced that the U.S. will begin airdropping sorely needed humanitarian assistance into Gaza amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

This comes a day after witnesses say Israeli forces shot desperately hungry Palestinians crowding around a food aid truck.

Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, joined “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” to discuss the humanitarian crisis, saying, “What we saw is people dying because they were afraid of dying of hunger.”

The president announced the airdrops after at least 115 Palestinians were killed and more than 750 others were injured, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.

“This is just another example of the chaotic situation in which we humanitarians have to operate in,” Dujarric said. “We can’t operate in a normal way without a cease-fire.”

Dujarric said there is a breakdown in social order within Gaza.

“We can’t even get our trucks in because people are taking it. We’re also seeing an increase in the criminal gangs taking aid,” he said. “All this is just spiraling out of control and it’s the men, women and children, the civilians in Gaza, who are paying the ultimate price.”

The European Union announced Friday it was going to restart its aid contributions to The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

The UNRWA agency is reeling from allegations that 12 of its 13,000 Gaza staff members participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in southern Israel. The agency fired the employees, but more than a dozen countries suspended funding worth about $450 million, almost half the budget for 2024.

“The 12 people violated every oath and every ideal that the UN stands for,” Dujarric said. “We want to get to the bottom of this as much as anybody else does because so many innocent people depend on the United Nations just to be able to survive right now.”

Israel at War

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