Over one million people in the Gaza Strip have received food assistance since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect nearly three weeks ago, UN aid coordination office OCHA said in an update on Wednesday. The temporary agreement to stop the fighting and release hostages brought an end to some 15 months of conflict and destruction in the Strip, following the brutal Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel of 7 October 2023.
The truce came into force on 19 January and OCHA said the surge in the daily entry of supplies into Gaza since then, along with improved access conditions, have allowed humanitarians to meaningfully expand the delivery of lifesaving assistance and services across the enclave. Moreover, coordination with the Israeli authorities for humanitarian aid missions is mostly no longer required, except when entering buffer zones.
“As a result, humanitarian partners are adjusting their response in accordance with population movements, including by expanding their operational presence and services in areas that were previously hard or impossible to access, such as Rafah, Gaza and North Gaza governorates,” OCHA said. Needs remain dire in Gaza, where the war has left over two million people fully dependent on food assistance, homeless, and without any income.
Over the past two weeks, the World Food Programme (WFP) delivered more than 10 million metric tonnes of food to the Strip, reaching roughly a million people through food parcel distributions to households. This is in addition to expanding bread deliveries at bakeries and community kitchens and re-opening a community kitchen in North Gaza on 24 January.
WFP also delivered fuel that enabled the five bakeries in Gaza governorate that it supports to increase production capacity by 40 per cent to meet the growing demand.Furthermore, 25 emergency medical teams are operating as of Tuesday, with 22 in the centre and south, two in Gaza City, and one in North Gaza.
Source: The UN
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