By Michelle Nichols and Emma Farge
UNITED NATIONS/GENEVA (Reuters) – Attacks on aid convoys in the Gaza Strip by looters and armed gangs could ease as humanitarian aid floods the region after a truce between Israel and Palestinian militants, said the head of the United Nations’ Palestinian aid agency, UNRWA. Friday.
He said UNRWA has 4,000 trucks of aid – half of which are food and flour – ready to enter the Palestinian enclave. The United Nations World Food Program said it had enough food to feed more than a million people for three months.
Throughout the 15 months of war, the UN has characterized its humanitarian operation as opportunistic – facing problems related to the Israeli military operation, access restrictions imposed by Israel in and within Gaza and, more recently, looting by armed gangs.
“If we start flooding Gaza with aid … that could also alleviate, in fact, this type of tension,” said UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini. “But we obviously also need orderly, uninterrupted and unhindered access to the population.”
On Wednesday, Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire, to begin Sunday, and the release of hostages taken by the militants during their deadly October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, which triggered the current conflict.
The deal remains conditional on approval by the full cabinet, which met Friday afternoon.
Talks began on Friday in Cairo to work out details of implementing an increase in aid to Gaza as part of the ceasefire agreement. In addition to security in Gaza, the UN has expressed concerns about road damage, unexploded ordnance, fuel shortages and lack of adequate communications equipment.
USAID Administrator Samantha Power said Friday she hoped an increase in aid could create a steady pipeline of humanitarian aid to Gaza. She said USAID had stocks ready to send.
“We’ve sent a team from Washington to the region. They’re looking at how many additional checkpoints can be open at one time, how hours can be extended, where trucks can come from,” Power said at MSNBC. .
HELP TRUCKS
The agreement requires 600 aid trucks to be allowed into Gaza each day during the initial six weeks of the ceasefire, including 50 carrying fuel. Half of the 600 aid trucks would be delivered to northern Gaza, where experts have warned famine is imminent.
“It is feasible, but it is not realistic to believe that the 600 trucks would be brought only by the UN or humanitarian organizations,” he told reporters. He added that commercial trucks should also be included.
Lazzarini also said that logistical capacity was limited in Gaza and so it would be helpful if bilateral aid could be delivered directly to its destination in the enclave.
UNRWA data shows that only 523 aid trucks entered Gaza in January, down sharply from 2,892 in December. The aid is deposited on the Gaza side, where it is picked up by the UN and distributed.
But gangs and looters made it difficult. Data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs shows that 2,230 aid trucks – an average of 72 per day – were collected, while between January 1 and 5 the daily average was 51 trucks.
Israel has ravaged much of Gaza and the pre-war population of 2.3 million has been repeatedly displaced. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday described the humanitarian situation as “catastrophic”.
Israel says Hamas killed some 1,200 people in the October 7, 2023 attack, and Gaza’s health ministry says more than 46,000 Palestinians were killed during the war. The UN says 269 UNRWA personnel in Gaza have been killed.
The World Health Organization plans to deploy prefabricated hospitals to support Gaza’s decimated health sector over the next two months, said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territory.
Currently, only about half of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are partially functional, according to the WHO.
Peeperkorn said he hoped the ceasefire would allow more medical evacuations for the more than 12,000 patients currently on the waiting list, about a third of whom are children. About half of patients suffer injuries such as amputated limbs and spinal injuries, he said.
