‘Death Zones’: UNICEF’s James Elder Rips Israel’s ‘Calculated’ Gaza Safe Zone Policy
Warning of the imminent spread of disease among displaced Gazans as the assault moves south, UNICEF’s James Elder criticised Israel’s “calculated” safe zone policy for creating “zones of death.”
Speaking to Sky News host Kay Burley, the Communications Chief explained that the growing scenario, where collapsed infrastructure is now giving way to disease, has been warned about for weeks by organisations like UNICEF and the World Health Organisation.
“That perfect storm is beginning,” Elder said, “and that is because of this massive influx of people with no absolutely nowhere to go. So the real risk now is that the horrendous numbers of thousands [of civilians] and thousands of children killed, continually being killed as you and I speak, risks being matched by deaths from disease. That’s what we get when they’re pushed to these zones that are anything other than safe.”
Burley replied: “The IDF would counter that by saying there is a stretch of land close to the sea in the southwest of the strip and that it is a safe place for Gazans to be. I’ve spoken to other people who say there is literally nothing there. There’s no infrastructure, there is nothing that will allow people to live there safely. Do you know this area? What can you tell us about it?”
“I do,” Elder replied. “It’s called Al-Mawasi. [It] makes up about four percent of Gaza. Gaza being one of the most densely populated places on the planet… four percent of Gaza and it would require 80 percent of the population to be there.
Continuing, he said: “If you imagine a car park of people stacked on top of each other, still without a toilet, still without a drop of water, so here you would absolutely have zones that are zones of disease and would become, in any same projection, zones of death. So, it’s such an important narrative to break this idea that people can just go to a safe zone if they wish, there was absolutely nothing safe about this.”
In a step further, the UNICEF official criticised the entire notion of safe zones, implying some cynicism behind their use by Israel: “I think to be honest, those people making these decisions and telling people to go there, they’re aware of [the problem]. This is calculated, it’s cold and it speaks to the indiscriminate nature and the lack of any sense of decency that has been enacted on relentless attacks on mums and kids and families.
In a report on Monday, covering an interview with Israeli Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely in which she explained that Gazans could simply head to Israel’s newly designated safe zone in Al-Mawasi, Sky News journalists cut abruptly to the location describing it as a “desolate wasteland” with “no aid agencies” and “no food kitchens.”
