Ashraf AboArafe
Ambassador Ahmed Abu Zeid, the official spokesman and director of the Public Diplomacy Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration, stated that Dr. Badr Abdel Aati, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Immigration and Egyptian Expatriates Affairs, met on Wednesday, July 31, with Ms. Sigrid Kaag, UN Senior Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs and Reconstruction in the Gaza Strip, on the sidelines of his current visit to the State of Qatar.
During the meeting, the Minister of Foreign Affairs was keen to reaffirm the need to ensure the rapid entry of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip without restrictions or conditions, and in quantities that meet the needs of the brotherly Palestinian people in the Strip, and alleviate their suffering in light of the unprecedented humanitarian disaster they are facing.
Abdel-Aati stressed the need to work to overcome the challenges and obstacles that prevent the entry and distribution of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, and to work to implement it in accordance with Security Council Resolution No. 2720, expressing his condemnation of all attempts to target humanitarian aid workers and their locations inside the Gaza Strip, and stressing that the role of UNRWA is indispensable in humanitarian relief efforts in the Strip. For her part, the UN official was keen to emphasize the importance of coordination with Egypt in light of the role it plays in all aspects of the current crisis, especially the humanitarian and relief aspect, expressing her hope that the issue of humanitarian aid access to the Strip will witness an improvement in the coming period, as the two sides agreed to continue consultation and coordination in order to advance relief work in the Strip.
