"This aid barely registers against the huge needs of 1.7 million
displaced people," a statement from the UN
Secretary-General's office said on Monday, highlighting his
call for a full humanitarian ceasefire. "The humanitarian
catastrophe in Gaza is getting worse by the day."
And as the UN emergency relief coordination office, OCHA, reported that people
in the south were queuing for kilometres to obtain cooking gas
and resorting to burning window frames and doors for cooking, it
added that the four-day humanitarian pause agreed upon by Israel
and Hamas has been “largely maintained”.
Under the agreement, Hamas released 17 more hostages taken during
the armed group’s terror attacks in southern Israel on 7 October,
bringing the total number of hostages released to 58, OCHA said.
Some 117 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons have also been
released since Friday.
Meanwhile over the weekend new efforts to bolster Gaza’s
devastated healthcare system came to fruition as a UN convoy
transported life-saving vaccines from Gaza City to the south of
the enclave, where they can be refrigerated.
Rescuing vaccines
OCHA said that on Sunday the joint UN convoy collected 7,600
doses of vaccines for various diseases from the Gaza Ministry of
Health warehouse, where they would have become unusable due to a
lack of refrigeration in the north, and successfully brought them
to the south.
“After thorough inspections to ensure their validity, the
vaccines will be utilized to enhance routine immunization, which
has been hampered by a shortage of supplies and ongoing
hostilities,” OCHA stressed.
‘Hunger, desperation and destruction’
Humanitarians reaching the north of the Strip for the first time
since it was sealed off by Israeli military operations weeks ago
bore witness to scenes of desolation. On Sunday, the UN World
Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Children’s
Fund (UNICEF) conducted a joint
mission to deliver vital food assistance to Al-Ahli hospital in
Gaza City and to surrounding areas.
“It’s a promising step, but the team recounted painful
stories from the people who haven’t received any aid in
weeks,” WFP Representative in the
occupied Palestinian territory Samer AbdelJaber, wrote on social
platform X. “They saw hunger, desperation and
destruction.”
On Saturday a UN health agency (WHO) and Palestine Red
Crescent Society (PRCS)-led mission evacuated at least 17
patients and wounded people from Al-Ahli hospital along with 11
of their companions, to the European Hospital in Khan Younis in
the south of the enclave. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus said that the patients were “suffering from gunshot
wounds, amputations and burns”. He reiterated calls for a
“sustained ceasefire”.
Urgent food assistance
Aid convoys brought ready-to-eat food to four shelters run by the
UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) in north Gaza’s
Jabalia camp on Sunday, as well as tents, blankets and bottled
water.
“The convoys were carefully inspected by Israeli forces deployed
at a checkpoint near Wadi Gaza before proceeding northwards,”
OCHA said.
Since 24 November, WFP has managed to provide essential food
assistance to 110,000 people in UNRWA shelters and host
communities through the distribution of bread, food parcels, and
electronic vouchers.
OCHA reported that food prices in Gaza have surged since the
start of the conflict. According to the Palestinian Central
Bureau of Statistics, the price of wheat flour jumped by 65 per
cent in October while that of mineral water doubled.
‘Burning doors to cook’
Since the pause came into effect cooking gas has also been
entering Gaza, but OCHA warned that the amounts “fall well below
the needs”.
The UN Office reported two-kilometre queues at a filling station
in Khan Younis in the south of the Strip, with people waiting
overnight, while those unable to secure cooking gas were “burning
doors and window frames to cook”.
