Today, Administrator Samantha Power spoke with Martin Griffiths, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator in the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA); Catherine Russell, Executive Director of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF); and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the UN World Health Organization (WHO), to discuss the recently declared pause in hostilities between the Government of Israel and Hamas and efforts to surge humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza.
Administrator Power thanked the staff and leadership of each agency for their work to provide life-saving aid under the most challenging circumstances, as well as their ongoing cooperation with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and other U.S. government partners. Administrator Power underscored the strong U.S. commitment to scaling up the humanitarian response in Gaza to assist those in need, and the need to take advantage of the pause to accelerate humanitarian assistance into Gaza and for sustained operations thereafter. Additionally, Administrator Power highlighted the ongoing and robust U.S. coordination with a variety of stakeholders, including the governments of Israel and Egypt, the UN, and other international actors focused on increasing the amount of humanitarian assistance and personnel in Gaza.
