Gaza needs massive boost in emergency aid after ceasefire, UN relief chief says

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO (Reuters) -The United Nations is seeking a dramatic boost in humanitarian aid for Gaza, saying the hundreds of relief trucks cleared to enter the devastated enclave under a ceasefire were nowhere near the thousands needed to ease a humanitarian disaster.

Tom Fletcher, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and its top emergency relief coordinator, told Reuters in an interview that thousands of humanitarian vehicles must enter weekly to avert further catastrophe.

"We have 190,000 metric tons of provisions on the borders waiting to go in and we're determined to deliver. That's essential life-saving food and nutrition," Fletcher said.

Israel's two-year air and ground war against Palestinian militant group Hamas drove almost all Gaza's 2.2 million people from their homes, and famine is present in the north, global monitors say.

'GOOD BASE', BUT NOT ENOUGH

Israeli officials said 600 trucks have been approved to enter the blockaded territory under the current U.S.-brokered truce deal. Fletcher called that a “good base” but said it was not enough to meet the scale of need.

Fletcher called for over 50 international NGOs, including Oxfam and the Norwegian Refugee Council, to be allowed to bring in aid, saying the issue has been raised with Israel, the United States and other regional partners.

"We cannot deliver the scale necessary without their presence and their engagement. So we want to see them back in. We are advocating on their behalf," he said.

Fletcher said the looting of aid trucks - a frequent scourge while fighting continued - had dropped sharply in recent days as deliveries increased.

“If you’re only getting in 60 trucks a day, desperate, hungry people will attack those trucks. The way to stop the looting is to deliver aid at massive scale and get the private sector and commercial markets operating again.”

Fletcher welcomed the Western-backed Palestinian Authority’s offer to play a role in reopening the Rafah border crossing with Egypt to aid deliveries, expected on Thursday after a delay imposed by Israel over what it called Hamas' slowness to return bodies of dead hostages under the ceasefire deal.

He said medical evacuations through the crossing would be a priority, citing recent talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

'NEED WORLD TO STAY BEHIND PEACE PLAN'

He said that for the fresh aid efforts to succeed the ceasefire agreement must be sustained. "We need peace. That way we can massively scale up our operations. We need the world to stay behind this peace plan.”

Vast swathes of the narrow, heavily urbanised coastal territory have been reduced to a wasteland by Israeli bombardments and airstrikes that have killed nearly 68,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.

The war was triggered by Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Twenty remaining living hostages were freed on Monday in exchange for thousands of Palestinians jailed in Israel.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; editing by Mark Heinrich)