ReutersUN officials in Gaza have warned that the process of rebuilding the devastated Palestinian territory will take “extremely long time” despite a promised surge in humanitarian aid.
“We’re not just talking about food, health care, buildings, roads and infrastructure. There are individuals, families and communities that need to be rebuilt,” said Sam Rose, acting director of the United Nations Palestine Refugee Agency (Unrwa). he said. Gaza told the BBC.
At least 1,545 aid trucks have entered the Gaza Strip after a ceasefire and hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas took effect on Sunday, the United Nations said.
Trucks brought in desperately needed food, tents, blankets, mattresses and winter clothing that had been stuck outside Gaza for months.
The ceasefire agreement reportedly calls for 600 aid trucks, including 50 carrying fuel, to enter Gaza every day during the first phase, which will last six weeks, during which Hamas , requires the release of 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.
“We expect a significant increase in the amount of aid coming in, but of course many of the problems we’ve faced so far during the war will be resolved once the fighting is over, so it’s hard to go and collect aid. It’s much easier. Don’t do it,” Rose said.
“We are no longer passing through active conflict zones. We no longer have to coordinate all these movements with Israeli authorities,” he added. “And today we don’t have any major problems with looting or crime.”
But he also stressed that “we have to move away from thinking about the needs of the people of Gaza as a function of the amount of aid.”
“Everyone in Gaza is traumatized by what is happening. Everyone has lost something. Most of those houses have been destroyed, most of the roads have been destroyed,” he said. added. “It’s going to be a long, long process of rehabilitation and rebuilding.”
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization’s regional director, Hanan Balki, has put Gaza’s health system back on track to meet the urgent needs of the population and prioritize the care of thousands of people with life-altering injuries. He said he has a 60-day plan to bring it back to normal.
The plan includes repairing Gaza’s hospitals (half of which are not operational and the rest are only partially functional), setting up temporary clinics in the worst-hit areas, and combating malnutrition and malnutrition. This includes dealing with the disease and suppressing the outbreak of the disease.
ReutersOn Sunday night, UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher warned that the humanitarian needs of Palestinians in Gaza were “staggering”.
UN officials have previously blamed the humanitarian crisis on Israeli military restrictions on aid supplies, hostilities and a breakdown in law and order.
Israel insists there is no limit to the amount of aid that can be delivered in and across the Gaza Strip and blames UN agencies for failing to distribute supplies. It also accuses Hamas of stealing aid, a charge the organization denies.
The Israeli military launched an operation to annihilate Hamas on October 7, 2023, in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack that killed approximately 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. Israel announced that 91 of the hostages were still being held.
Since then, more than 47,000 people have been killed and more than 111,000 injured in Gaza, according to the Hamas-controlled region’s health ministry.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population have also been displaced multiple times, with 60% of buildings estimated to be damaged or destroyed, medical, water and sanitation facilities collapsed, and food, food, and sanitation facilities collapsed. There are severe shortages of fuel, medicine, and shelter. .
In October, the United Nations-backed Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC) found that 1.84 million people across Gaza experienced high levels of severe food insecurity, and 133,000 people faced devastation that could lead to starvation and death. estimated that they were facing a similar level.
The following month, the IPC Committee warned that famine was likely “imminent” in some areas of northern Gaza.
Before the ceasefire, the United Nations said food aid had been largely cut off to the besieged northern towns of Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun since Israeli forces launched a ground offensive in October aimed at preventing a Hamas resurgence. announced that it has been done.
A Palestinian woman who returned to her destroyed home in northern Gaza on Monday after the ceasefire took effect expressed shock at what she saw after Israeli soldiers left.
Manal Abu al-Dragham told BBC Arabic’s Gaza Today program: “The intensity of the invasion was such that it was as if the whole place had been hit by an earthquake.”
“I will pitch my tent in the north, no matter what the cost…I don’t want to be exiled from my land again.”
Rose said his Unruwa team in southern Gaza, where he is based, has not yet been able to cross into northern Gaza because Israeli forces have not yet cleared a route through the Netzarim East-West Corridor.
But he said Unruwa, as the largest humanitarian organization in Gaza, had a network and people on the ground who could help if given access.
However, Unruwa faces an impending ban from Israel, which could make it impossible to operate in Gaza.
Two laws passed by Israel’s parliament and expected to take effect next week will ban the agency from operating within Israeli territory and prohibit Israeli state institutions from communicating with it.
Israel has accused Unruwa of colluding with Hamas and said 18 of its employees took part in the October 7 attack. The agency fired nine employees who were found to have been involved in the U.N. investigation, and maintained its neutrality.
The United Nations says Unrwa is irreplaceable to Gaza, and UN Director-General Philip Lazzarini said that if the Israeli government enforces the two laws, even in the “worst case scenario” thousands of Palestinian staff declared they would “remain and carry out their mission” in Gaza. “It’s a significant personal risk for them.”
