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 authorities on behalf of UN agencies and the wider humanitarian community.

Eleven aid workers currently or recently involved in the Gaza response – five of them in senior roles – spoke to The New Humanitarian about Tkalec. They had similar concerns: She has allowed Israeli 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 Israeli authorities 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 refusal to allow food into the enclave.

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