UNITED NATIONS, UNITED STATES - The United Nations named an outgoing Dutch minister its humanitarian coordinator for Gaza on Tuesday following last week’s watered-down Security Council resolution which called for aid to be delivered to the strip “at scale.”
Sigrid Kaag’s appointment comes as the people of Gaza face a dire humanitarian emergency, with aid slowed to a trickle by Israel’s continued bombardment of the densely populated coastal strip.
She will start work on January 8, the UN said in a statement. Last week’s UN Security Council resolution called for the “safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance at scale” -- but did not call for an immediate end to fighting.
“United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres today announced the appointment of Ms Sigrid Kaag of the Netherlands as Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza,” the UN said in a statement. The Security Council adopted the resolution on Gaza on Friday after days of delays and diplomatic wrangling.
A draft version of the resolution had said that the aid mechanism to accelerate the delivery of relief would be “exclusively” under UN control. But the final version, passed after Washington abstained, now states it would be managed in consultation with “all relevant parties” -- meaning Israel would retain operational oversight of aid deliveries. Kaag has been the Netherlands’ deputy prime minister and finance minister since January 2022. She has previously held a number of senior UN jobs including its special coordinator for Lebanon and the Joint Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations Mission in Syria.
