2023-11-24T19:46:00+00:00
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/ The United Nations announced, on Friday, the unloading of 137 trucks transporting food, water and medicine in the Gaza Strip, since the start of the truce between Israel and Hamas. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement that this is the “largest humanitarian convoy” to enter Gaza since the war began on October 7.
He pointed to the crossing of 129,000 liters of fuel from Egypt into the Gaza Strip through the Rafah port, and the evacuation of 21 patients in critical condition from the northern Gaza Strip, where Israeli military operations are concentrated.
United Nations agencies expressed their hope that the fragile truce that began between Israel and Hamas on Friday would allow aid to flow into northern Gaza for the first time in weeks. The World Health Organization said it was working to evacuate more people from hospitals there.
Relief agencies said they aim to deliver supplies to the northern part of the Palestinian Strip, where hospitals have collapsed due to bombing and fuel shortages, amid severe fears of drought and disease outbreaks.
“We welcome the start of the humanitarian truce in Gaza and the movement of humanitarian aid, including health aid. It is a step in the right direction, but more is needed,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
Jens Laerke, spokesman for the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs, said in a UN press conference that aid is flowing into Gaza, and added that he hopes this truce will lead to a ceasefire.
In response to a question about whether the United Nations had obtained guarantees from Israel that it could deliver aid to the north, Larke replied, “We continue to work with the hope that we will reach those in need wherever they are.”
Egypt says that during the truce, 200 trucks will cross the Rafah crossing daily, more than double the recent average, and about twice the amount of fuel (130,000 litres), but it is not clear how this increase will be managed. This border crossing is the only one currently open, and the flow is disrupted by logistical restrictions, bottlenecks, and slow inspections.
World Health Organization spokesman Christian Lindmeier said that the organization is working to implement more evacuations from hospitals in northern Gaza as quickly as possible with the start of the truce.
He added, “We are very concerned about the safety of the estimated 100 patients and medical staff members who remain at Al-Shifa Hospital.”
Tommaso della Longa, spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told Reuters that local partner organizations were driving a convoy of ambulances north to evacuate patients from the National Baptist Hospital.
He continued, “We hope that the cessation of fighting will allow us to reach all people in Gaza, including areas in the north that were impossible to reach.”