Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 30th Nov. UN agency for Palestinian refugees on Wednesday reported that humanitarian assistance had reached its shelters in northern Gaza for first time since war began between Hamas and Israel after hopes of a deal to extend the pause in fighting in Gaza on Wednesday,
Thomas White, Director of UNRWA Affairs in Gaza said as we drove through Gaza City it was like a ghost town; all the streets were deserted.”
“The impact of heavy airstrikes and shelling was so visible. Roads are riddled with craters, complicating aid deliveries.”
Humanitarians have urged the both sides to support repeated international calls to extend the pause in fighting, which has facilitated the reported release of at least 85 hostages by Hamas, and of more than 180 Palestinian prisoners by Israel.
According to aid coordination office, OCHA the pause has enabled humanitarian actors, primarily the Egyptian and Palestinian Red Crescent Societies and UN agencies, to “enhance” desperately needed aid deliveries into and across Gaza.
UN office’s latest aid update noted that a Palestine Red Crescent Society convoy had reached the north on Tuesday carrying food, medical supplies, water, and non-food items, although the bulk of aid distribution has focused on the south, where most displaced Gazans now live.
UNRWA said that on Monday a 6 truck convoy had reached Jabalia, the largest and most built-up refugee camp in Gaza, located north of Gaza City.
Mr. White said that UNRWA colleagues in Jabalia continue to serve their communities day in, day out, including one of the agency’s sanitation services chiefs – “despite the unspeakable grief of his wife and daughter being killed”.
Over 200 aid trucks have been able to cross into the enclave via Egypt every day since the pause in fighting came into force on Friday 24 October.
UNRWA showed images on X of volunteers unloading sacks of supplies into a warehouse and a static fuel tank being filled.
Over 15,000 Gazans have been killed during Israeli airstrikes, according to health authorities, including about 6,000 children.
Head of the WHO Issued a fresh warning about the high risk of diseases spreading among those displaced by the violence.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on X reiterated dire assessments that “given the living conditions and lack of healthcare, more people could die from disease than bombings”.
WHO latest date pointed to 111,000 acute respiratory infections, 75,000 cases of diarrhoea and tens of thousands of people suffering from scabies, lice, skin rashes and jaundice.
According to UNRWA, 1.8 million Gazans 80 per cent of the population in Gaza have been displaced since Hamas’s terror attack on southern Israel on 7 October which left 1,200 dead and some 240 taken hostage.
The displaced had left their homes in the north, in line with an evacuation order issued by the Israeli Defense Forces, issued on 13 October.
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