The United Nations is seeking a dramatic boost in humanitarian aid for Gaza, saying the hundreds of relief trucks cleared to enter the devastated enclave under a ceasefire were nowhere near the thousands needed to ease a humanitarian disaster.
Tom Fletcher, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and its top emergency relief co-ordinator, told Reuters in an interview that thousands of humanitarian vehicles must enter weekly to avert further catastrophe.
“We have 190,000 metric tonnes of provisions on the borders waiting to go in and we’re determined to deliver. That’s essential life-saving food and nutrition,” Fletcher said.
Israel’s two-year air and ground war against Hamas drove almost all Gaza’s 2.2 million people from their homes, and famine is present in the north, global monitors say.
Israeli officials said 600 trucks have been approved to enter the blockaded territory under the current US-brokered truce deal. Fletcher called that a ‘good base’ but said it was not enough to meet the scale of need.
Fletcher called for more than 50 international NGOs, including Oxfam and the Norwegian Refugee Council, to be allowed to bring in aid, saying the issue has been raised with Israel, the United States and other regional partners.
“We cannot deliver the scale necessary without their presence and their engagement. So we want to see them back in. We are advocating on their behalf,” he said.
Fletcher said the looting of aid trucks – a frequent scourge while fighting continued – had dropped sharply in recent days as deliveries increased.
“If you’re only getting in 60 trucks a day, desperate, hungry people will attack those trucks. The way to stop the looting is to deliver aid at massive scale and get the private sector and commercial markets operating again.”
Fletcher welcomed the Western-backed Palestinian Authority’s offer to play a role in reopening the Rafah border to aid deliveries.
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