“She Cares More About Dogs Than People”: UN’s Top Gaza Official Accused of Enabling Israel’s Weaponisation of Humanitarian Aid: Report

Gaza (QNN)- A new investigation has revealed that the UN’s top representative in Gaza has been accused of “serving Israeli interests” by enabling the weaponisation of aid, alienating Palestinian and international colleagues, and contributing to Israeli efforts to sow division among humanitarian workers.

Suzanna Tkalec was appointed in early 2025 as the UN’s Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory – the UN’s most senior Gaza-based role, which involves negotiating access with Israeli occupation authorities on behalf of UN agencies and the wider humanitarian community.

Aid workers involved in the Gaza response told The New Humanitarian that has allowed Israeli occupation authorities to manipulate the aid response; failed to push back against growing restrictions; uncritically repeated Israeli talking points; and offended Palestinian colleagues and community members, including by blaming them for aid shortages.

Almost all the aid workers also brought up Tkalec’s negotiations with Israel to bring dog food into Gaza for stray dogs near a UN guesthouse at a time when Palestinians were starving to death because of Israel’s blockade on aid entering the enclave.

“She cares more about dogs than she cares about human beings here,” one UN worker said.

Another aid worker described Tkalec’s negotiations over dog food as showing “deep insensitivity toward Palestinian colleagues”.

Several aid workers said Tkalec is frequently absent from Gaza – far more than previous senior UN staff who rarely left the enclave. These regular trips are putting additional and unnecessary strain on already-stretched UN resources, with no apparent benefit, they said.

Multiple aid workers also raised concerns about Tkalec’s frequent trips outside Gaza to meet Israeli occupation authorities in person.

“Having UN leadership in Gaza means something… It reassures other humanitarian agencies that leadership is here, and Gaza is not just the other [side] of the world,” one aid worker said.
“In order to understand Gaza’s context, you need to live it,” they said.

“But if you’re coming here for a couple of weeks and then going to another COGAT meeting, it doesn’t help.”

The aid workers also said Tkalec has increasingly sidelined UNRWA, the UN’s agency for Palestine refugees, which Israel has long sought to eliminate.

“She seems to be subservient, or serving Israeli interests, in various ways,” said one senior aid worker.

“They like her because she provides them with someone to speak to that is not pushing back strongly, if at all… someone that conveys their messages directly to the humanitarian community,” the senior aid worker said. “It was Suzanna that offered them the full package, which was silence and compliance.”

“My positions are the positions of the UN, and my role is to uphold the principles of the UN. My only priority is to get aid to Palestinians – whose suffering over the past two years has been beyond words – in the most efficient, pragmatic, principled, and safest way possible. As long as I’m in this role, this will remain my only focus,” said Tkalec in response to the accusations.

Manipulated With COGAT

Every aid worker who spoke with The New Humanitarian also said they were concerned about Tkalec’s relationship with COGAT, the Israeli military department responsible for coordinating with humanitarians.

Tkalec “has been consistently manipulated by COGAT”, according to the senior aid worker.

In late August, Israel announced plans for a major offensive on famine-stricken Gaza City, in the north of the enclave amid plans to occupy it and forcibly displace over one million Palestinians.

In the days before the offensive, Tkalec negotiated an agreement with Israel to allow the distribution of tents in southern Gaza, dozens of kilometres from Gaza City, according to three aid workers.

They said the agreement was widely perceived within the humanitarian community as an acceptance of the mass displacement of Palestinians.

Speaking to The New Humanitarian, a UN official recalled a colleague telling Tkalec: “I will not be involved in the ethnic cleansing of these people.”

“We do plans to support the people who would be affected by the military,” the UN worker said. “Not plans that help in the military operations.”

News of the agreement prompted some aid workers to send complaints to Tom Fletcher, the UN’s top humanitarian official, according to the UN official who spoke to The New Humanitarian.

“The more I think of it, the more sick it is,” the official said. “I am appalled that she has not been removed.”

Tkalec claimed to The New Humanitarian that her preparedness and response plan for Gaza City aimed to “ensure that civilians are protected and that they receive the aid they need – wherever they are”.

Tkalec also blamed Palestinian community leaders for failing to prevent the looting and creating Israel’s pretext for denying household distribution, two aid workers said.

“She held the people responsible for not doing the household distribution, though the Israelis are the ones who banned it from the start,” the UN worker said.

Silent on Israel’s Crimes

Previous DHCs and other senior UN staff have directly criticised Israeli atrocities in official public statements. Multiple aid workers pointed out that Tkalec has not done the same.

One aid worker said her approach to engaging with Israeli occupation authorities was “obedient” and “docile”.

Several said Tkalec seems overly deferential and appreciative of Israel, celebrating when small amounts of supplies have been allowed into Gaza by the same authorities who have blocked them.

“She made it sound as if they are amazing for agreeing to allow this,” the UN worker said.

The UN official who spoke to The New Humanitarian recalled her making statements to colleagues like, “Negotiations with COGAT are going really well” and, “They’re really trying”.

“This is an organ of the state that’s conducting a genocide,” the official said, adding that this “compliant and silent approach” has not only failed to address Israel’s aid restrictions but also makes the UN complicit.