GENEVA: The UN’s humanitarian chief said Wednesday that Israel had decided not to cap the number of trucks allowed into Gaza, as he laid out a plan to bring aid into the Palestinian territory.
Martin Griffiths told reporters that the United Nations had around 460 trucks ready in El Arish, the closest major Egyptian city to the Rafah crossing into the Gaza Strip.
Griffiths said he was “very grateful” to hear, via the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, “that the Israeli government has decided – and we thank them – not to put a cap on the number of trucks going in”.
Griffiths made the announcement as he set out a 10-point plan to help ease the humanitarian situation in Gaza, calling in particular for a ceasefire.
“We have the trucks, we need the fuel and we need the money to fund the delivery, and then we can do the job that we are there to do,” he said.
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“It’s very welcome that they have said today there will be no cap on trucks.”
Griffiths called for aid to be allowed to flow continuously into the Gaza Strip, including through its crossings with Israel – notably the Kerem Shalom crossing in the south.
“The extent of the suffering is insufferable,” Griffiths said.
“Open additional crossing points for aid and commercial trucks to enter into Gaza, including Kerem Shalom,” which, he said, used to carry more than 60 percent of the truckloads going into the enclave before the conflict.
“Please, Israel, give us that for our crossing point.”
He also stressed the vital need for the violence to stop, regardless of whether it is called a ceasefire, or a humanitarian pause.
“I have spent 50 years dealing with different words to describe something which is essentially very, very simple: Silence the guns, stop the fighting to allow the people to move safely,” he said.
“Silence those guns long enough to give the people of Gaza a breather from the terrible, terrible things that we’ve been talking about these last few weeks.”
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas in response to its attacks on October 7, which killed an estimated 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw 240 hostages taken to Gaza.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says Israel’s ensuing aerial bombardment and ground offensive has killed 11,320 people, mostly civilians, including thousands of children.