The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stated that conditions for distributing aid to Gaza Strip residents remain “far from sufficient” to meet overwhelming needs. This assessment comes despite Israel announcing Sunday, under international pressure, daytime tactical pauses in hostilities in some areas to facilitate aid delivery.
OCHA emphasized that these pauses alone “do not enable the continuous flow of deliveries required to meet Gaza’s immense needs.” The UN agency elaborated: “While the UN and partners seize every opportunity to provide support during these tactical pauses, the conditions for aid distribution and delivery are anything but sufficient.”
Detailing the obstacles, OCHA explained that for UN drivers to access the barricaded Kerem Shalom crossing, Israel must approve each mission, provide a secure route, issue multiple permits, halt bombing in the area, and finally open the barriers. The agency warned that deaths from starvation and malnutrition, as well as among people seeking aid, have already occurred despite four days of these tactical pauses.
Desperate and hungry people continue to swarm the limited aid arriving on trucks that manage to cross barriers, OCHA reported. Furthermore, fuel deliveries are described as “insufficient to meet basic needs” and merely “a drop in the ocean.”
In related developments, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that 10 people, predominantly women and children, were killed in various areas of the Gaza Strip today due to ongoing Israeli bombardments.