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Gaza: Aid teams repeat calls for unhindered access to stricken enclave

As Gazans jammed the main route leading north on Friday after a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas was announced, UN aid teams repeated their call to open all crossings into the devastated enclave to prevent famine spreading.

“There is little information available on the details or how the agreement will be implemented. However, we call for all crossings into Gaza to be open immediately so that humanitarian supplies can flow into the war-torn enclave,” said Juliette Touma, Director of Communications for the UN agency for Palestinians, UNRWA.

Her comments came as Israeli forces reportedly pulled back from parts of Gaza, in line with an agreement between Israel and Hamas, brokered in Egypt this week by US mediators and representatives from Qatar and Turkïye.

“This food from UNRWA is critical for averting and controlling famine,” Ms. Touma stressed, as the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) pointed to 50,000 “at risk” youngsters suffering from acute malnutrition. “They need to be treated immediately…with the ceasefire, we hope we can get the therapeutic treatment that they so desperately need,” said spokesperson Ricardo Pires.

The UN’s top aid official, Tom Fletcher insisted on Thursday that “the whole UN humanitarian family” is mobilized to get aid into Gaza.

Speaking to journalists, he underlined the “indispensable role” of UNRWA in distributing aid supplies across the Strip while also highlighting the central role assigned to the UN in US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan now being enacted.

Active conflict ongoing

Aid teams still working in the enclave reported that the ceasefire had not come into effect on Friday morning.

Nonetheless, vital humanitarian work continues, including one UNICEF mission to Gaza City on Thursday “to rescue two babies who were in incubators and fighting for their lives”, said Mr. Pires. “Luckily, with the hard work of colleagues and health workers on the ground, they survived and they got reunited with their families today.”

The UNICEF spokesperson explained that the mission had to wait 15 hours to gain access to Gaza City because “the situation on the ground was still very, very unstable and kinetic activity was taking place, a lot of violence”.

Echoing that assessment, UNRWA’s Ms. Touma noted that colleagues in the enclave reported ongoing airstrikes on Friday morning. The UN agency spokesperson also noted that more than 370 UNRWA staff members have been killed over the course of the conflict sparked by Hamas-led terror attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023. “This is the highest death toll in the United Nations since it was first established,” she added.

Joining the call for “unimpeded” aid access across “all possible routes”, UN health agency (WHO) spokesperson Christian Lindmeier stressed the need to resume urgent medical evacuations from Gaza to the West Bank including East Jerusalem, along with flexible funding “to drive the recovery”.

UN agencies have 170,000 metric tons of food, medicine and other supplies ready to deliver into Gaza.

The aim is to scale up the provision of food across Gaza to reach 2.1 million people and some 500,000 people who need nutrition support.

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