GENEVA:(Web News) Maintaining the Gaza ceasefire is crucial to delivering life-saving humanitarian aid in the territory, the United Nations said Tuesday, repeating a call for all crossings to be opened.
“Sustaining the ceasefire is vital; really it’s the only way we can save lives,” Abeer Etefa, Middle East spokeswoman for the UN’s World Food Programme, told a briefing in Geneva.
“We know it’s a fragile ceasefire; the most important thing is that it lasts.”
Etefa said that since the ceasefire came into force, 530 WFP trucks had crossed into Gaza, bringing in more than 6,700 tons of food, which she said was “enough for close to half a million people for two weeks.”
“Convoys are pushing through, food is getting to the warehouses and distributions are happening in an organized and dignified manner,” she said.
Etefa added that WFP had not seen looting of its convoys since the ceasefire.
The spokeswoman said WFP now had 26 food distribution points open in Gaza — up from five on Friday, but still far short of the 145 it hopes to run throughout the territory. Most are in the south and center of the Strip.
“People are showing up in large numbers” at the distribution points, Etefa said.
She said that only the Kerem Shalom and Kissufim crossings were open, but called for every entry point into the Palestinian territory to be opened, particularly those in the north, where the food situation “is extremely dire.”
“We don’t have an indication on when those border points wil be open,” she said, adding: “We haven’t gotten to the point where Gaza is flooded with food.”
France’s President Emmanuel Macron also called on Tuesday for aid routes into Gaza to be reopened as a matter of “absolute urgency” to allow crucial aid in for war-stricken civilians.
“The situation in Gaza remains very fragile,” Macron told a news conference in Ljubljana alongside Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob.
“We wish to remain committed along with our European, Arab and US partners to immediately obtain — and this is a matter of absolute urgency — the reopening of humanitarian sites and routes so that aid, food and basic necessities can be brought to the population.”
