The cease-fire agreement came into effect on Sunday, January 19. The United Nations Office for the Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has welcomed the increase in life-saving humanitarian aid to areas where the situation has worsened due to Israeli military operations over the past 15 months.
Within minutes of the deal taking effect on Sunday, aid trucks began entering Gaza, according to OCHA spokeswoman Ines Lark. There were no reports of looting of relief trucks or attacks on aid workers in the last two days.
It was reported that more than 900 aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip on Monday following a deal between Israel and Hamas brokered by the United States, Qatar and Egypt.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas and other armed groups attacked Israel, after which the Israeli military retaliated in the Gaza Strip. During this time, the flow of aid trucks into Gaza dropped to 50 trucks per day.
According to Jens Lark, “Aid has finally reached an escalation point. Finally, more hostages have been released and can be reunited with their families. Women and minors have finally been freed from custody. It is a great hope, fragile but important; that the agreement remains in place. should.”
Physical and mental injuries
At a press briefing in Geneva, an OCHA spokesman said the biggest priority for Gazans was to provide food, restock hospitals with essential supplies, repair water supply networks, fix shelters and reunite families.
“A lot of these things we’ve done consistently, but not to the level that was needed. And that’s our hope now that we’ll be able to do that.”
According to the United Nations humanitarian agency, Gaza’s entire population, more than 2 million people, is dependent on humanitarian aid for basic needs. This includes children, who make up about 50 percent of Gaza’s population and many of whom survive on just one meal a day.
Jens Lark said hunger is rampant, people are homeless, disease is spreading. Children are separated from their families and are in deep emotional trauma, which needs to be addressed.
Health is important
The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that one in two hospitals in Gaza is out of business, others have limited access to health services and most health centers have been damaged.
UN agency spokesman Tarek Yasarevich said the priority for now is to provide health care to the people of Gaza as quickly as possible, taking into account emergency care, maternal and child health and other needs.
He said, it should not be forgotten that 12,000 patients should be sent outside Gaza for better treatment and arrangements should be made to provide them with the necessary services.