United Nations: United Nations leaders and agencies have welcomed the entry of a humanitarian aid convoy into Gaza via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt but noted that it is only a small beginning, still far from enough and reiterated their appeal for an immediate ceasefire.
A 20-truck convoy of the Egyptian Red Crescent entered Gaza with humanitarian supplies, the first since the conflict began following attacks by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel on October 7.
“I want to express my deep gratitude to Egypt in this regard. But the people of Gaza need a commitment for much, much more a continuous delivery of aid to Gaza at the scale that is needed,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Saturday.
“We are working nonstop with all parties that are relevant to make it happen,” he said in remarks at the Cairo Summit for Peace.
Five UN agencies - UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) - said the “first, but limited, shipment of life-saving humanitarian supplies” from the UN and the Egyptian Red Crescent that entered Gaza through the Rafah Crossing, will provide an urgently needed lifeline to some of the hundreds of thousands of civilians, mostly women and children, cut off from water, food, medicine, fuel and other essentials.
“But it is only a small beginning and far from enough. More than 1.6 million people in Gaza are in critical need of humanitarian aid.
Children, pregnant women and the elderly remain the most vulnerable. Nearly half of Gaza’s population are children,” the agencies said.
“Gaza was a desperate humanitarian situation before the most recent hostilities. It is now catastrophic. The world must do more,” they said.
The agencies added that with so much civilian infrastructure in Gaza damaged or destroyed in
nearly two weeks of constant bombings, including shelters, health facilities, water, sanitation, and electrical systems, “time is running out” before mortality rates could skyrocket due to disease outbreaks and lack of health-care capacity.
They also noted that hospitals are overwhelmed with casualties.