Despite repeated international requests to allow large-scale aid deliveries, Israel has continued to seal Gaza’s Rafah crossing with Egypt a week into the ceasefire. In northern Gaza, several Palestinians were killed and injured in the wake of Israeli-caused attacks.
The UN has warned for several days that aid needs to be delivered to Gaza at a rapid pace and that it must travel across all border crossings to meet urgent humanitarian needs. Israel was authorized to increase aid deliveries in accordance with the agreement to put an end to Israel’s genocide, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 67, 000 Palestinians in two years.
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Aid convoys were battling it out in northern Gaza on Friday due to bombed-out roads and the ongoing closure of other important routes into the region’s north, according to the UN.
Since the ceasefire broke out last week, the World Food Programme (WFP) has delivered 560 tonnes of food to Gaza on average every day, but the amount is still below what is required. The UN agency estimated that Gaza would need three months of food to feed it all.
This week, Tom Fletcher, the UN’s director of humanitarian affairs, announced that thousands of aid vehicles would need to travel to the country to combat widespread malnutrition, displacement, and the collapse of infrastructure.
According to WFP spokesman Abeer Etefa, “We’re still below what we need, but we’re getting there.” The ceasefire has opened a window of opportunity, and the organization is expanding its food assistance program very quickly and expeditely.
The WFP claimed that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza City was still averted by the ongoing closure of Zikim and Beit Hanoon, with Israeli forces stationed in the north of the city, where it is most acute.
Israeli forces are still present in roughly 53% of Gaza as part of the US-brokered ceasefire agreement, which calls for their gradual withdrawal.
According to Etefa, “access to Gaza City and northern Gaza is extremely difficult,” adding that south of the territory’s roads were preventing traffic flow of convoys of wheat flour and ready-to-eat food items.
“These openings in the north, where the famine began, are very important. It is crucial to get these openings in order to turn the tide on this famine.
Many relief organizations have not fully returned to the north, where hospitals are hardly operating, leaving many people unable to access regular care, according to global medical charity Doctors Without Borders, which is known by its French name MSF.
More Palestinians are killed.
Israeli attacks on Palestinians in Gaza continue unabated as much urgent aid is demanded.
After an Israeli artillery strike struck a small bus carrying displaced families east of Zeitoun, Gaza’s civil defense said its teams are conducting rescue operations.
According to the organization, the attack resulted in “several deaths and injuries.” As attempts to reach the area continue, one injured boy was saved, but the fate of the others is still unknown. “Due to the danger at the site,” the site’s residents continue to try to get there.
Three Palestinians were injured in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, in separate incidents, with varying degrees of injury, according to the Wafa news agency.
Hamas meanwhile vowed to return the remains of Israeli prisoners who are still unaccounted for beneath Gaza’s ruin. The group’s armed wing claimed that all the bodies it recovered had been returned, but that returning more remains would require allowing heavy machinery and excavation equipment into Gaza, which has been much of the body parts since Israeli bombardment.
According to Hani Mahmoud, a journalist for Al Jazeera from Gaza City, there is “a clear disconnect” between what the Israeli government demands of an area that has been “reduced to rubble.”
Israel is making it difficult for the residents of Gaza who are experienced and have the expertise to search and extract bodies from under the rubble because the Israeli military is preventing access to large amounts of equipment and machinery.
He noted that “thousands of Palestinian bodies buried and missing and trapped under tonnes and tonnes of rubble and debris” rather than just the bodies of Israeli prisoners who had died underground.
Authorities in Gaza have been having trouble locating the bodies of dozens of Palestinians who were killed earlier this week. The Health Ministry reports that only six of the 120 bodies have been officially identified so far.
The bodies , according to the ministry, show signs of torture, including bound hands and feet, hanging and rope marks, and gunshot at close range.
According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, the bodies displayed “conclusive evidence of field executions and brutal torture.”
Hamas’ disarmament
The next steps of the truce are expected to address Hamas’ disarmament, possible amnesty for its leaders who lay down their weapons, and who will rule Gaza after the war.
Mohammad Nazzal, a member of the Hamas political party, stated that the organization plans to keep security in place in Gaza for the duration of that time, adding that he was unable to end the conflict.
He claimed that if there was “horizons and hope” for a five-year ceasefire, Hamas would be prepared to rebuild Gaza.
Nazzal responded, “I can’t respond with a yes or no,” when asked whether Hamas would give up its weapons. It depends largely on the project’s nature. What does the disarmament project you’re referring to mean? Who will be the recipient of the weapons?
