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Gaza truce raises hopes of respite, more aid access: UN humanitarians

Trucks with relief supplies continued to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing from Egypt on Friday after the entry into force of a four-day pause in fighting at 7 am local time, UN humanitarians said.

“The United Nations can confirm that, as I speak, trucks with humanitarian supplies continues to cross into Gaza through the Rafah crossing point,” said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian affairs coordination office (OCHA). “We hope the agreement between Israel and Hamas now in force will bring respite to the people of Gaza and Israel and some relief to the hostages and detainees who will be released and to their families.”

Besides the 96-hour humanitarian pause in fighting, the agreement announced earlier this week stipulates the release of hostages taken during the Hamas terror attack on Israel on 7 October as well as of Palestinian detainees from Israeli prisons.

As the death toll in the enclave passed 14,800 as of Thursday evening, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office quoted by OCHA, thousands of people are still estimated to be trapped under the ruins of their houses.

Mr. Laerke said that “we hope that the truce will allows grieving families to honor the dead and bury them with dignity, and we hope that this humanitarian pause leads to a longer-term humanitarian cease fire for the benefit of the people of Gaza, Israel and beyond.”

Mr. Laerke reiterated the importance to get “access across the Gaza Strip, especially in the north. That's where the damage and the humanitarian needs are the greatest. So, we continue to call for access to reach all parts of Gaza.”

OCHA reported that 68,383 litres of fuel entered Gaza from Egypt on Thursday, following an Israeli decision from 18 November to “allow the daily entry of small amounts of fuel for essential humanitarian operations”. The UN Office said last week that some 200,000 litres of fuel per day were needed.

“It is very important to get fuel in, to be able to operate any machinery that will be required to get people out of the rubble”, stressed Mr. Laerke. “We see that in all kinds of situations where you have massive infrastructural damage and collapse.”

Welcoming the humanitarian pause while stressing that “more was needed”, UN health agency (WHO) spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said that work was under way “on further evacuations from hospitals as soon as possible.”

He recalled that on 22 November “together with the Palestine Red Crescent Society, a WHO-led joint UN mission evacuated 151 patients, relatives and health workers accompanying them from Al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza. This was undertaken specifically following requests from health authorities and hospitals and hospital officials in Gaza.”

This was the third mission to Al-Shifa carried out by WHO and partners in less than a week; the first had been an assessment mission on 18 November and the second an evacuation mission to transport 31 infants on 19 November.

“We are extremely concerned about the safety of the estimated 100 patients and health workers remaining at Al-Shifa and due to the limited time that the mission members were able to spend in the hospital and the urgency of moving the most critical, it was difficult to determine exactly how many remain”, said Mr. Lindmeier.

Out of 24 hospitals operating in the north prior to the war, 22 are either out of service or unable to admit new patients, while of the 11 medical facilities in the south, eight are functional. WHO said that of those, only one has the capacity to treat critical trauma cases or perform complex surgery.

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Gaza Start of truce WHO - OCHA 24 November 2023

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