UNITED NATIONS: United Nations (UN) aid agencies say the first twenty-truck convoy of aid that reached Gaza on Saturday is “only a small beginning and far from enough.”
In a joint statement, the agencies — UN Development Programme (UNDP), the World Food Programme (WFP), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the World Health Organization (WHO) — said that more than 1.6 million people are in critical need of humanitarian assistance in the enclave battered by Israeli bombing raids.
The agencies said that vulnerable people are at significant risk, and minors are dying at an alarming rate and being denied their right to food, water, protection, and health care.
They said that Gaza was in a desperate humanitarian situation before the most recent hostilities, and now it is catastrophic. The international community must do more.
Aid Agencies Call for Humanitarian Ceasefire
The agencies called for a humanitarian ceasefire and safe access to civilians in an effort to prevent more suffering and save lives. Hundreds of trucks are waiting at the Gaza border. Pakistan has also dispatched a plane-load of humanitarian aid for Palestinian people in Gaza.
The UN agencies said that this first, but limited shipment will provide an urgently required lifeline to some of the hundreds of thousands of civilians, mostly females and children, who have been cut off from food, medicine, water, fuel, and other essentials, but it is only a small beginning and far from enough.
Read Also: Cairo Peace Summit Urges Immediate Ceasefire and Urgent Aid for Gaza
In Gaza, over 1.6 million people are in critical need of humanitarian assistance. Children make up about half the population and are among the most vulnerable, along with pregnant females and elderly persons.
Moreover, two weeks of constant bombings have left much of the civilian infrastructure in the enclave damaged or destroyed, including health facilities, shelters, water, sanitation, and electrical systems.
The agencies warned that time is running out before mortality rates could jump due to disease outbreaks and lack of healthcare capacity.
