“WFP delivered enough food
for 25,000 people to Gaza City early Tuesday in first
successful convoy to the north since 20 February,” the
UN agency said in a tweet. “With people in northern Gaza
on the brink of famine, we need deliveries every
day and we need entry points directly into the north.”
The news came as UN humanitarians also welcomed the announcement
on Tuesday that an aid ship, Open Arms, had left Cyprus for Gaza
carrying 200 tonnes of relief supplies. But they stressed that it
was “not a substitute” for overland assistance to Gazans on the
verge of famine.
“Any food and other emergency aid that comes into Gaza, as we all
know, is desperately needed; there is no question about it,” said
Jens Laerke, spokesperson for UN aid coordination office,
OCHA.
“So, it's highly appreciated…But it's not a substitute
for the overland transport of food and other
emergency aid into Gaza and particularly northern Gaza. It cannot
make up for that.”
Relief lifeline
The NGO behind the Open Arms initiative, World Central Kitchen,
has already worked with UN aid teams in Rafah in southern Gaza,
where some 1.5 million have sought shelter amid daily Israeli
bombardment and fighting for the last five months, prompted by
Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel that left some 1,200 dead and
more than 250 taken hostage.
Children’s scissors denied
Underscoring the dire humanitarian emergency still unfolding in
Gaza, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, condemned the refusal
to allow so-called “dual-use” items destined for the enclave.
“A truck loaded with aid has just been turned back because it had
scissors used in children’s medical kits,” tweeted Philippe
Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General on Tuesday.
“Medical scissors are now added to a long list of banned items
the Israeli Authorities classify as ‘for dual use’. The list
includes basic and lifesaving items: from anaesthetics, solar
lights, oxygen cylinders and ventilators, to water cleaning
tablets, cancer medicines and maternity kits.
“The clearance of humanitarian supplies and the delivery of basic
and critical items need to be facilitated and accelerated. The
lives of two million people depend on that, there is no time to
waste.”
All options explored
Asked by journalists in Geneva if the UN might use the new
maritime corridor between the southern port of Larnaca in Cyprus
and Gaza, OCHA’s Mr. Laerke replied that “any and all entry
points into Gaza should be looked at”.
But following repeated refusals by Israeli authorities to allow
humanitarian convoys to access the north and unsafe conditions
for aid teams, the UN official insisted that “we need the
overland access and the safe and secure and regular delivery
within Gaza as well”.
Famine ‘imminent’
In a related development, UN World Food Programme chief Cindy
McCain warned on Monday that famine is “imminent” in Gaza and
will only be avoided if humanitarian there increases
“exponentially”.
Speaking in Rome, the WFP Executive Director underlined grave
concerns for people “across Gaza, particularly the north, which
is in the grip for humanitarian catastrophe.
“If we do not exponentially increase the size of aid going into
the northern areas, famine is imminent.”
Ahead of Tuesday’s announcement that aid had reached northern
Gaza, the veteran aid official explained that WFP had been forced
to pause aid deliveries there owing to concerns “for the safety
of our staff and due to the complete breakdown of law and order”.
The UN agency head insisted that all options were being explored
to alleviate the hunger crisis in northern Gaza, including air
drops, but “they will never deliver the necessary volume that
road access can”.
Road access “and the use of existing ports and crossings is the
only way to get aid into Gaza at the scale that is now required,”
the WFP chief insisted. "We need 300 trucks of food entering Gaza
every single day."
UNRWA Ramadan campaign
Amid the humanitarian crisis, UNRWA on Tuesday launched its
annual Ramadan campaign to provide
emergency food aid to Gaza.
The campaign will run through the end of the holy month and
provide 100 per cent of Zakat contributions directly to
internally displaced people in the Gaza Strip who are facing
starvation.
Zakat contributions –
almsgiving which is one of the five pillars of the Islamic faith
- will also go to eligible Palestinian families in the region
through emergency food and cash assistance, the agency said.
