SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
By Michelle Nichols
New York: Aid is beginning to enter the Gaza Strip, bringing with it hopes a famine will be averted in the Palestinian territory.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said 915 aid trucks entered the strip on the second day of a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas after 15 months of war.
OCHA cited information from Israel and the ceasefire guarantors, the US, Qatar and Egypt. The UN said some 630 aid trucks had entered the Palestinian enclave on Sunday, with at least 300 going to the north, where experts have warned a famine looms.
Humanitarian aid trucks enter through the Kerem Shalom crossing from Egypt into the Gaza Strip on Monday.Credit: AP
The ceasefire deal requires 600 truckloads of aid to be allowed into Gaza every day of the initial six-week ceasefire, including 50 carrying fuel. Half of the 600 aid trucks would be delivered to Gaza’s north.
“That’s a big step up,” said International Rescue Committee chief executive David Miliband from London. “I fear… it will take time. We want to ramp up as quickly as possible.”
He said the IRC in Gaza was focused particularly on water and sanitation, child protection and other healthcare.
“What counts is the medicine that gets through, the water… the fuel… the aid workers… and whether they get through safely,” he said, referring to issues with looting and security threats to deliveries that have been a problem during the war when aid to Gaza has been extremely limited.
Palestinians wait for aid trucks to cross into the Gaza Strip in May last year.Credit: AP
Data from the UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA showed 2892 aid trucks entered Gaza in December. Aid is dropped off on the Gaza side of the border, where it is picked up by the UN and distributed. But gangs and looters have made that hard. Data from OCHA shows 2230 aid truckloads – an average of 72 a day – were intercepted in December, while between January 1 and 5 it was a daily average of 51.
Israel has laid waste to much of Gaza and the pre-war population of 2.3 million people has been displaced multiple times. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has described the humanitarian situation as “catastrophic”.
Guterres told the UN Security Council the UN still faced “significant obstacles, challenges and constraints”. He said it, aid groups and the private sector needed rapid, safe and unimpeded access.
“Visas, permits, and other enabling conditions must be in place quickly to allow a surge of desperately needed relief,” he told the 15-member council. “We require the necessary technical, protective and communications equipment.”
Guterres said the parties – Israel and Hamas – must coordinate with the UN in a timely and effective manner so it can do its humanitarian work. “This also includes the restoration of public order and safety to prevent the looting of humanitarian supplies,” he added.
He urged countries to take in people who need medical treatment, for sufficient commercial supplies to be able to enter Gaza and for explosive ordnances to be removed.
