UNITED NATIONS: Despite some progress in delivering food to Gazans, the territory, ravaged by war and wracked by hunger, remains in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, a UN spokesperson said.
The United Nations and its partners have been able to get 37,000 metric tonnes of aid, mostly food, into Gaza since the October 10 ceasefire, but much more is needed, UN spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters.
“Despite significant progress on the humanitarian scale-up, people’s urgent needs are still immense, with impediments not being lifted quickly enough since the ceasefire,” Haq said, citing reports from UN’s humanitarian service, OCHA.
Haq lamented that entry into Gaza continues to be limited to only two crossings, with no direct access to northern Gaza from Israel or to southern Gaza from Egypt, while NGO staff are being denied access.
Earlier this week, the UN said it had distributed food parcels to one million people in Gaza since the ceasefire, but warned it was still in a race to save lives.
The UN’s World Food Programme stressed all crossing points into the Gaza Strip should be opened to flood the famine-hit Palestinian territory with aid, adding that no reason was given why the northern crossings with Israel remained closed.
WFP aims to reach 1.6 million people in the territory with parcels, which provide enough food for a family for 10 days.
The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect on October 10, after both sides agreed to a US-brokered 20-point peace plan.
Separately on Friday, new details emerged on the United States’ draft Security Council resolution aimed at bolstering President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan, including by greenlighting an international security force.
The draft resolution “welcomes the Board of Peace,” a transitional governing body for Gaza envisioned in Trump’s 20-point plan, according to a copy of the text obtained by AFP on Friday.
Its mandate would last until the end of 2027.
It also authorizes member states to “establish a temporary International Stabilization Force (ISF) in Gaza” with the aim of providing border security in cooperation with Israel and Egypt, demilitarizing the Gaza strip as well as achieving “the permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups.”
While it appears that Security Council members support the broader idea of the “Board of Peace” and the stabilization forces, diplomatic sources note that the text raises several questions, including the lack of a Security Council oversight mechanism, the role of the Palestinian Authority, and the details of the ISF’s mandate.
