UN aid chief welcomes ‘humanitarian pauses’ in Gaza

GENEVA: The United Nations’ aid chief welcomed Israel’s announcement Sunday of secure land routes into Gaza for humanitarian convoys, and said the UN would try to reach as many starving people as possible.

“Welcome announcement of humanitarian pauses in Gaza to allow our aid through,” UN emergency relief coordinator Tom Fletcher said on X.

“In contact with our teams on the ground who will do all we can to reach as many starving people as we can in this window.”

Fletcher’s UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ( OCHA) warned Friday that conditions on the ground in Gaza were “already catastrophic and deteriorating fast”.

Israeli military announces daily pauses in Gaza areas to allow aid for hungry

“The starvation crisis is deepening,” it said, warning that hunger and malnutrition increase the risk of illnesses, and adding that the consequences can quickly “turn deadly”.

It said that “the trickle of supplies that are making it into the Strip are nowhere near adequate to address the immense needs”.

OCHA said UN teams were in place to ramp up deliveries into the Palestinian territory “as soon as they are allowed to do so”.

“If Israel opens the crossings, lets fuel and equipment in, and allows humanitarian staff to operate safely, the UN will accelerate the delivery of food aid, health services, clean water and waste management, nutrition supplies, and shelter materials,” it said.

OCHA said constraints imposed by the Israeli authorities had hampered humanitarians’ ability to respond.

It said that on Thursday, for example, out of 15 attempts to coordinate humanitarian movements inside Gaza, four were “outright denied”, with another three impeded.

One was postponed, and two others had to be cancelled, meaning only five missions went ahead.

On Friday OCHA issued an aid delivery plan in the event of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.