Sigrid Kaag, the U.N.’s senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for the Gaza Strip, plans to move her residence and offices to Gaza later this month, the diplomat told the Netherlands’ NOS public broadcaster in an interview from Jordan.
“I believe you should always work from the field. You can’t just come up with good ideas from New York or the region,” Kaag, who previously served as the Dutch deputy prime minister, said on Tuesday.
It was not immediately clear where Kaag intends to rent an apartment in the Gaza Strip, though the move is slated for mid-June, NOS said.
According to a poll published by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research on Wednesday, only 12% of PA Arabs are satisfied with the U.N.’s role in the conflict. Meanwhile, some two-thirds of the PA public continues to support Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre.
Kaag, who previously served as the Netherlands’ minister for foreign affairs, admitted to parliament in 2020 that her ministry had paid part of the salaries of two terrorists involved in the murder of an Israeli teen.
Before joining the Dutch government in 2017, she served in multiple senior United Nations roles, including at the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). She is married to Anis al-Qaq, a former senior Palestinian Authority official.
