Aid agencies are in a “race against time” to get food and other humanitarian supplies gaza stripA UN official has warned, as Israeli sanctions are hampering deliveries to the bombed enclave.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, a senior spokesperson for the United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP) noted that aid deliveries had increased since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect last month.
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But only two Crossing into Gaza are open, which “severely limits the amount of aid” that WFP and other agencies can bring in, Abir Etefa said.
“We need full access. We need everything to move fast. We are in a race against time. The winter months are coming. People are still suffering from hunger, and the needs are overwhelming,” she said.
WFP, which currently operates 44 food distribution points in Gaza, said it has provided food parcels to more than one million Palestinians in the territory since the ceasefire began on October 10.
But Etefa told reporters that food shortages in Gaza remained insufficient, reaching as far as northern Gaza, home to the world’s top hunger monitor. Confirmed drought conditions In August, a challenge remains.
“The continued closure of northern crossings into the Gaza Strip is a major obstacle. Aid convoys are obliged to follow a slow, difficult route from the south,” she said.
“To distribute in quantity, WFP needs all crossings to be open, especially in the north. It also needs full access to main roads across Gaza where food can be transported quickly and efficiently to where it is needed.”
There are thousands of Palestinians returned to their home In recent weeks, Israeli forces in northern Gaza withdrew to the so-called “yellow line” as part of a ceasefire agreement.
But most found their homes and neighborhoods completely destroyed by Israel’s two-year bombardment. Many families are displaced and forced to live in tents and other temporary shelters.
Khalid al-Dahdouh, a Palestinian father of five, returned to Gaza City to find his home destroyed. He then builds a small shelter for his family, using bricks salvaged from the rubble and held together with mud.
“We tried to rebuild because winter is coming,” he told Al Jazeera.
“We don’t have tents or anything else, so since there is no cement we make a primitive structure out of mud … it protects us from cold, insects and rain – unlike a tent.”
The UN and other aid agencies are calling on Israel to allow more supplies into the Strip, as stipulated in the cease-fire agreement, as Palestinians face particularly harsh conditions during the cold winter months.
On Saturday, Gaza Govt The media office said 3,203 commercial and aid trucks brought supplies into Gaza between October 10 and 31, an average of 145 aid trucks per day, or just 24 percent of the 600 trucks entering each day as part of the supply agreement.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces continue to attack Gaza, destroying homes and other structures.
One person was killed and another was injured on Tuesday when an Israeli quadcopter opened fire in the Tufah neighborhood east of Gaza City. A source at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital told Al Jazeera that one person was killed by Israeli army fire in Jabaliya, northern Gaza.
At least 240 Palestinians have been killed According to Gaza’s health ministry, 607 people have been injured in Israeli strikes since the ceasefire took effect.
Israeli leaders have rejected criticism of those attacks and continued to impose restrictions on humanitarian aid, and have accused Hamas of breaching the agreement by not releasing all the bodies of dead Israeli prisoners from the region.
On Tuesday, Israel said it had received the remains of an Israeli prisoner after Hamas handed them over to the International Committee of the Red Cross.