Gaza aid ‘a true disaster’, says former US special envoy for humanitarian issues

Ambassador David Satterfield tells The National that the risk of famine is at its highest point since last year

Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza

A former top US official for humanitarian aid in the Middle East has said the situation in Gaza is a “true disaster”.

Israel has cut off the northern strip from the rest of Gaza with a siege blocking food, water, medications and aid since October 1, and causing mass displacement of the people remaining there.

“The risk of starvation, the risk of famine, even if it is only in localised places, is more significant today than it has been at any point since the beginning of the year, end of last year,” said David Satterfield, the former US special envoy for humanitarian issues in the Middle East.

Israel has less than two weeks to drastically improve the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza before Washington could start to restrict access to funding for US weapons.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin this month to wrote to Israeli ministers telling them that weapons shipments could be affected unless Israel addresses the “deteriorating humanitarian situation” in Gaza within 30 days. But since then, Israel has failed to address many of the concerns outlined in the letter.

According to Israel’s own data, only 26,399 tonnes of aid entered the Gaza Strip in October compared to 87,445 tonnes the month before.

Mr Satterfield, a veteran US diplomat, spent more than four decades working on and in the Middle East, and currently directs Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston, Texas. He was appointed special envoy for humanitarian issues by President Joe Biden immediately after the Hamas-led attack against Israel on October 7, 2023.

He served in the role for six months before stepping down at the end of April. He believes that Israel’s operation in Rafah, which began in May, is when humanitarian efforts began to falter.

The US and the international humanitarian community had been close to getting specialised aid – including medical care and food assistance for vulnerable communities – into Gaza.

David Satterfield, former Special Envoy for Middle East Humanitarian Issues, speaks to The National in Texas in October 2024. Joshua Longmore / The National

“That was all literally put aside by the initiation of the Rafah campaign,” Mr Satterfield said in an exclusive interview with The National.

The US called on Israel to develop a plan for the hundreds of thousands of civilians in Rafah who would be displaced by a military operation and warned of the consequences if it did not. But Israel pressed ahead with its operation, displacing more than one million Palestinians from the southern Gaza city, many of whom had already fled from the north.

“There were no provisions made for what indeed was a million people moving just as we had predicted,” Mr Satterfield said. “Where we were wrong is we understated the magnitude of the humanitarian disaster which this would produce … It was worse than we thought.”

In recent weeks, Israel has refocused its military efforts on northern Gaza. The UN’s top humanitarian official, Joyce Msuya, warned that “the entire population of north Gaza is at risk of dying".

Israel has been accused of operating a starve-or-leave policy in northern Gaza. Mr Satterfield refused to speculate on Israel’s operation in the north but was adamant that more aid needed to get through.

“[I am] extraordinarily concerned about the situation in Gaza, not just the north, but the centre, in the south, where the bulk of the population live.”

Mr Satterfield said it took a “whole of government approach” this spring to get the necessary amount of aid flowing into Gaza.

“My assessment is, since mid-June the diminishing returns from that campaign are offset by the increasing harms, deficits done, created for Israel first and foremost, for the United States, for the region, for our collective partners around the world,” he said. “In the words of the President, frankly, in the words of the Israeli Minister of Defence and Chief of Staff, it's time for this to come to an end.”

Adding to the aid crisis, Israel this week banned the UN’s relief agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, from operating in areas where Israeli law applies. UNRWA is essential for aid deliveries into Gaza. The ban will take effect in three months but the US wants to see a “pause” in its implementation.

The Knesset’s vote prompted Washington’s ambassador to the UN to speak out.

“Israel must address the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza," Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US representative to the UN, told the Security Council on Tuesday.

Smoke rises after Israeli air strikes targeted Palestine Tower in Gaza city on October 7, 2023. EPA

Palestinians take control of an Israeli Merkava battle tank after crossing the border fence with Israel from Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023. AFP

This video grab from footage released by the Israeli Hostage and Missing Families Forum campaign group on May 22 shows what the group described as Israeli female soldiers being captured by Palestinian Hamas militants during the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. AFP

Smoke rises following an Israeli air strike in Gaza city on October 9, 2023. EPA

A rocket is launched from the coastal Gaza strip towards Israel by militants of the Ezz Al-Din Al Qassam militia, the military wing of Hamas movement, in Gaza city. EPA

Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, as seen from the city of Ashkelon, Israel, on October 9, 2023. Reuters

Lightning strikes as smoke billows following an Israeli air strike in Gaza city on October 9, 2023. AFP

An Israeli artillery unit fires at an area along the border with Gaza, southern Israel, on October 11, 2023. EPA

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish people carry their belongings before boarding a ship for US nationals and their immediate family members, as they leave Israel headed for Cyprus. Reuters

Palestinian youths take cover behind a rubbish container as they clash with Israeli forces at the northern entrance of the West Bank city of Ramallah near the Israeli settlement of Beit El on October 20, 2023. AFP

A man mourns as he attends a funeral of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 24, 2023. Reuters

A man holds a child, survivors of Israeli bombardment, as they are treated at a trauma ward at Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 24, 2023. AFP

People search for survivors and the bodies of victims through the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israeli bombardment in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 26, 2023. AFP

Anti-war protesters raise their 'bloody' hands behind US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on President Biden's $106 billion national security supplemental funding request to support Israel and Ukraine, as well as bolster border security, on Capitol Hill in Washington on October 31, 2023. Reuters

Palestinians run for cover after a strike near the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza city on November 1, 2023. AFP

Palestinian children run as they flee from Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on November 6, 2023. AFP

An injured Palestinian woman covered in dust and blood hugs an injured girl child at the hospital following the Israeli bombardment of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on November 15, 2023. AFP

Hostages released by Hamas Gal, left, and Tal Almog-Goldstein, second left, stand in a bus transporting them to an army base in Ofakim in southern Israel after they were released by the Palestinian militant group from the Gaza Strip on November 26, 2023. AFP

Palestinian boys stand in their makeshift tent at a camp set up on a schoolyard in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip where most civilians have taken refuge, on December 13, 2023. AFP

Palestinians fleeing the north through the Salaheddin road in the Zeitoun district on the southern outskirts of Gaza city, walk past Israeli army tanks on November 24, 2023. AFP

In this picture taken during a media tour organised by the Israeli military on December 15, 2023, soldiers visit a tunnel that Hamas reportedly used to attack Israel through the Erez border crossing on October 7. AFP

Jewish protesters block the passage of aid trucks being sent to Gaza in Ashdod, Israel on February 1, 2024. Reuters

A man pulls water containers as he walks past destroyed buildings in Khan Younis on May 5, 2024. AFP

Relatives of Hanan Yablonka, one of the Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip since the October 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian Hamas militants, mourn during his funeral in Tel Aviv on May 26. AFP

Humanitarian aid packages land after being dropped from a plane in Al Mawasi district of Khan Younis, on May 30, 2024. Reuters

Palestinians attend Eid al-Adha prayer in Khan Younis town, southern Gaza strip, on June 16. EPA

Displaced Palestinians play football in Jabalia on July 23, 2024. AFP

Palestinians injured in an Israeli strike on a school ride on the back of a cart in Deir Al Balah on July 27, 2024. AFP

Palestinians gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in the northern Gaza Strip, September 11. Reuters

Palestinians survey the damage at the site of Israeli strikes on a displacement camp in Khan Younis on September 10, 2024. AFP

A medical staff member carries supplies through a destroyed section of Al Shifa hospital in Gaza city on September 17. AFP

People walk past makeshift graves in Gaza city on September 17. AFP