A growing controversy is shaking the UN’s humanitarian operations in Gaza after a detailed investigation revealed that Susanna Tkalec, the Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator in the occupied Palestinian territories, is accused of allowing Israel to manipulate aid flows and weaken the UN’s collective stance. Current and former aid workers describe her leadership as complacent, fragmented, and overly accommodating to Israeli demands, at a time when civilians are enduring one of the worst humanitarian crises in modern history.

According to testimonies, Tkalec repeatedly failed to challenge Israel’s tightening restrictions on humanitarian access. Her approach to individual negotiations, rather than collective pressure, is said to have enabled Israel to divide agencies and control aid routes. Several aid officials claim she even agreed to limited relief measures, such as allowing tents into southern Gaza before mass displacement and restricting flour distribution to bakeries, decisions that worsened chaos and civilian suffering. Reports also suggest she sidelined UNRWA in favour of agencies ill-equipped to manage large-scale relief, further undermining the response.

Critics accuse Tkalec and her superior, Ramiz Alakbarov, of presenting overly optimistic briefings to international partners that downplayed Gaza’s desperation, from fuel shortages to widespread hunger and disease. Her frequent absences from the Strip reportedly strained operations, while her comments urging Palestinians to “stay calm” during famine were condemned by local journalists as “insulting and detached.”

This controversy underscores a deeper crisis within the UN’s humanitarian system, one where fear of confrontation and political caution have left Gaza’s civilians exposed to systematic deprivation and control. As scrutiny mounts, many within the humanitarian community warn that neutrality must not become complicity, and that silence in the face of suffering is its own form of betrayal.