UN races to reach Gaza's starving as Israel allows limited pause, secure aid routes
The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said it had enough food in, or on its way to, the region to feed the 2.1 million people in the Gaza Strip for almost three months.
UN emergency relief coordinator Tom Fletcher said the United Nations would try to reach 'as many starving people as we can' in the time window.
Israel on Sunday began a limited 'tactical pause' in military operations to allow the UN and aid agencies to tackle the deepening hunger crisis.
'We welcome Israel's decision to support a one-week scale-up of aid, including lifting customs barriers on food, medicine and fuel from Egypt and the reported designation of secure routes for UN humanitarian convoys,' Fletcher said in a statement.
Fletcher said some movement restrictions appeared to have been eased on Sunday, citing initial reports indicating that over 100 truckloads of aid were collected.
'But we need sustained action, and fast, including quicker clearances for convoys going to the crossing and dispatching into Gaza; multiple trips per day to the crossings so we and our partners can pick up the cargo; safe routes that avoid crowded areas; and no more attacks on people gathering for food.'
The UN aid chief said the world was calling out for life-saving humanitarian assistance to get through — but stressed that 'vast amounts of aid are needed to stave off famine and a catastrophic health crisis'.
'Ultimately of course we don't just need a pause — we need a permanent ceasefire,' he added.
No shootings near convoys pledge
WFP said the pauses and corridors should allow emergency food to be safely delivered.
'Food aid is the only real way for most people inside Gaza to eat,' it said in a statement.
It said a third of the population had not been eating for days, and 470,000 people in Gaza 'are enduring famine-like conditions' that were leading to deaths.
WFP said more than 62,000 tonnes of food assistance was needed monthly to cover the entire Gaza population of two million.
The agency noted that, on top of Sunday's 'pause' announcement, Israel had pledged to allow more trucks to enter Gaza with quicker clearances along with 'assurances of no armed forces or shootings near convoys'.
'Together, we hope these measures will allow for a surge in urgently needed food assistance to reach hungry people without further delays,' it said.
'Dystopian landscape'
UN rights chief Volker Turk said Israel, as the occupying power in Gaza, was obliged to ensure sufficient food was provided to the population.
'Children are starving and dying in front of our eyes. Gaza is a dystopian landscape of deadly attacks and total destruction,' he said in a statement.
He criticised a US- and Israel-backed outfit, called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), that in late May began distributing foodstuffs when UN-organised efforts were blocked.
Turk said the GHF's 'chaotic, militarised distribution sites were 'failing utterly to deliver humanitarian aid at the scope and scale needed'.
His office says Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid in Gaza since the GHF started operations — nearly three-quarters of them in the vicinity of GHF sites. — AFP
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