Following the resolution adopted by the United Nations Security Council to examine options for increasing the amount of humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed Sigrid Kaag as UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Gaza and is expected to her role will begin on January 8th.
Kaag was previously deputy prime minister of the Netherlands and is considered an expert on the Middle East. Kaag is fluent in Arabic, among five other languages, and has also worked with Queen Rania of Jordan in the past.
After being appointed to her new position, Guterres explained that Kaag “brings a wealth of experience in political, humanitarian and development affairs, as well as diplomacy. It will facilitate, coordinate, monitor and verify humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza.” According to Guterres, Kaag will also set up a mechanism to expedite aid deliveries “by states not involved in the conflict.”
Kaag, 61, is married to Anis al-Qaq, a senior Palestinian Authority official who served as deputy prime minister in Yasser Arafat's government and as Palestinian ambassador to Switzerland, and she has a controversial history with Israel. In the past, she clashed with then-Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte because she considered policies toward Israel to be too friendly.
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Aid trucks enter the Gaza Strip
(Photo: Alexi J. Rosenfeld /Getty Images)
Kaag has previously been praised for her role in Syria's disarmament of chemical weapons, which the country pledged to disarm in 2013. For nine months, she led the international inspectors mission responsible for the destruction of Damascus-recognized chemical materials, while navigating between Syria and the Middle East and Europe as well as maintaining relations with Moscow, Washington and various militaries.
Diplomats have praised Kaag's work in Syria, and she has earned respect in Damascus, where some have nicknamed her the “Iron Woman.”
“She never stops working and practically never sleeps,” a Syrian official said of her at the time.