Amid hopes of a deal to extend the pause in fighting in Gaza
between Israel and Hamas on Wednesday, the UN agency for
Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) reported that humanitarian
assistance had reached its shelters in northern Gaza for first
time since war erupted last month.
Truce deadline looms
Wednesday marks the sixth and final day of a truce between Hamas
and Israel that was facilitated by Qatar. Humanitarians have
urged the warring sides to support repeated international calls
to extend the pause in fighting, which has facilitated the
reported release of at least 85 hostages by Hamas, and of more
than 180 Palestinian prisoners by Israel.
The pause has also enabled humanitarian actors, primarily the
Egyptian and Palestinian Red Crescent Societies and UN agencies,
to “enhance” desperately needed aid deliveries into and across
Gaza, according to aid
coordination office, OCHA.
The UN office’s latest aid update noted that a Palestine Red
Crescent Society convoy had reached the north on Tuesday carrying
food, medical supplies, water, and non-food items, although the
bulk of aid distribution has focused on the south, where most
displaced Gazans now live.
Aid workers’ courage
In a statement, UNRWA said that
on Monday a six-truck convoy had reached Jabalia, the largest and
most built-up refugee camp in Gaza, located north of Gaza
City.
UNRWA colleagues in Jabalia continue to serve their communities
day in, day out, including one of the agency’s sanitation
services chiefs - “despite the unspeakable grief of his wife and
daughter being killed”, said Mr. White.
Some 200 aid trucks have been able to cross into the
enclave via Egypt every day since the pause in
fighting came into force on Friday 24 November.
Images provided by UNRWA on X on Wednesday showed volunteers
unloading sacks of supplies into a warehouse and a static fuel
tank being filled.
More than 15,000 Gazans have been
killed during Israeli airstrikes, according to the
enclave’s health authorities, including about 6,000 children.
Tedros’s dire warning
In a related development, the head of the UN health agency issued
a fresh warning on Wednesday about the high risk of diseases
spreading among those displaced by the violence.
Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
reiterated dire assessments that “given the living conditions and
lack of healthcare, more people could die from
disease than bombings”.
Latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO) pointed to 111,000
acute respiratory infections, 75,000 cases of diarrhoea and tens
of thousands of people suffering from scabies, lice, skin rashes
and jaundice.
According to UNRWA, more than 1.8 million Gazans – around 80 per
cent of the population in the enclave - have been displaced since
Hamas’s terror attack on southern Israel on 7 October which left
1,200 dead and some 240 taken hostage.
The displaced had left their homes in the north, in line with an
evacuation order issued by the Israeli Defense Forces, issued on
13 October.
