UK, France Call For UN Security Council Meeting On Gaza

The Security Council will hold a private meeting on “The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question” (MEPQ).

France and the UK, supported by Algeria, requested the meeting to discuss the humanitarian situation and the protection of aid workers in Gaza. Director of the Operations and Advocacy Division at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Edem Wosornu is expected to brief. Israel and the Observer State of Palestine to the UN are expected to participate in the meeting.

France and the UK requested the meeting after a 19 March strike on a UN compound in the city of Deir Al Balah in central Gaza killed a staff member of the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and injured several others. The attack took place in the context of the collapse of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas and the resurgence of hostilities in Gaza.

On 19 March, Israel resumed large-scale military operations in Gaza for the first time since the first phase of the ceasefire went into effect in January, launching airstrikes that killed over 400 people, including at least 170 children and 80 women, according to figures from the Ministry of Health in Gaza cited by OCHA.

The strikes have continued since then, reportedly pushing Gaza’s total death toll since the beginning of the conflict past 50,000 and newly displacing an estimated 142,000 people. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have also resumed ground operations in the territory, reasserting control over parts of the Netzarim corridor separating northern and southern Gaza and moving troops into other areas across the enclave, which Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has threatened to permanently annex. (For background and more information, see our 20 March What’s in Blue story.)

Humanitarian and UN personnel have been among the casualties of the hostilities. In a 24 March statement, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General Stéphane Dujarric reported that the 19 March strike on the UNOPS compound in Deir Al Balah killed a Bulgarian staff member and “left six others – from France, Moldova, North Macedonia, Palestine and the United Kingdom – with severe injuries, some of them life-altering”. The statement added that “[b]ased on the information currently available, the strikes…were caused by an Israeli tank”. The IDF has denied involvement in the strike on the UN compound.

In the 24 March statement, Dujarric further conveyed the Secretary-General’s strong condemnation of the strike and his call for a “full, thorough and independent investigation” into the incident. He noted that the compound was well known to the conflict parties and stressed that the parties were bound by international law to protect the inviolability of UN premises, without which UN staff “face intolerable risks as they work to save the lives of civilians”. Dujarric said that the UN would consequently “reduce the Organization’s footprint in Gaza, even as humanitarian needs soar and our concern over the protection of civilians intensifies”. He provided additional details in his 24 March press briefing, saying that one third of the organisation’s approximately 100 international staff members in Gaza would leave “this week”, with a few more likely to leave in the future.

There have been reports of several other attacks on UN and humanitarian personnel and facilities since the fighting resumed. In a 20 March statement, UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said that five UNWRA staff members had been killed, bringing the total death toll for Agency staff during the conflict to 284. On 21 March, the IDF destroyed the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital—Gaza’s only specialised cancer hospital—which had been non-operational since sustaining damage in November 2023.

On 23 March, the IDF carried out a strike on the Nasser Medical Complex in southern Gaza, killing two patients, according to OCHA. Israel said that a Hamas operative was the target of the attack. On Monday (24 March), a facility belonging to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Rafah was damaged by an “explosive projectile”, with no casualties. Also on Monday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported that one of its ambulances in Rafah had come under fire from Israeli forces.

In response, three additional ambulances were dispatched to evacuate the wounded, but Israeli forces then “besieged” the area, “leading to complete loss of communication” with the PRCS teams, who remain missing. In a 24 March post on X, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher referred to “[h]orrific reports” of attacks on health workers, ambulances, and hospitals in Gaza and demanded that “hospitals and medics not be targeted”.

The Security Council has met several times on the MEPQ file in recent weeks, including to discuss the most recent developments in Gaza. On 18 March, the Council held a briefing on the humanitarian situation in the territory. On 20 March, it convened for a briefing on the humanitarian conditions facing the remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza. The following day (21 March), Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process ad interim Sigrid Kaag delivered the quarterly update on the implementation of resolution 2334 of 23 December 2016, which demanded that Israel cease all settlement activity in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), including East Jerusalem, and called for immediate steps to prevent violence against civilians, including acts of terror.

The resurgence of hostilities has compounded other concerns about the humanitarian situation in Gaza. On 2 March, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel would prevent the entry of humanitarian aid and commercial supplies into the territory, citing Hamas’ rejection of US proposals to extend the first phase of the ceasefire, which expired on 1 March, as well as the group’s refusal to release the 59 hostages it is still holding. According to OCHA, the halt in aid has “crippled” humanitarian efforts in Gaza, while most movement requests requiring coordination with Israeli authorities have been denied. The World Food Programme (WFP) reported today (27 March) that “hundreds of thousands” of people in Gaza are again at risk of extreme hunger and malnutrition as food stocks dwindle, while Israel’s decision to also cut off electricity to the territory has impeded the operations of a desalination plant supported by UNICEF, which reported critical water shortages as 1.8 million people in Gaza—over half of them children—are in “urgent” need of water, sanitation, and hygiene assistance.

At tomorrow’s meeting, most speakers are likely to reiterate serious concern about the resumption of hostilities in Gaza, urge the parties to return to the ceasefire agreement, and stress the pressing need to restore humanitarian access. They are expected to call on the parties to uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law, condemn all attacks on humanitarian and UN personnel, and demand thorough and credible investigations into such incidents. They may also note that the recent reports of attacks on aid workers continue a broader trend. According to the Aid Worker Security Database, 379 aid workers were killed in 2024, making it the deadliest year on record for humanitarian personnel. The war in Gaza has fuelled a large share of the rising fatalities: between October 2023 and November 2024, 320 humanitarian personnel were killed there, the majority of whom worked for UNRWA. In this regard, members may call for the full implementation of resolution 2730 of 24 May 2024 on the protection of humanitarian and UN personnel. The Council is expected to hold a briefing on the implementation of this resolution next week.