RAFAH, Gaza Strip: UN agencies voiced hope that a shaky truce that got underway between Israel and Hamas on Friday would allow aid to flow to northern Gaza for the first time in weeks, while the World Health Organization said it is working on further hospital evacuations.
Aid agencies have said they are aiming to deliver supplies to northern part of the Palestinian enclave where hospitals have collapsed due to bombings and lack of fuel and where there are major concerns about dehydration and disease outbreaks.
Aid trucks started entering the Gaza Strip from Egypt on Friday, around 1-1/2 hours after a truce began between Israel and Palestinian Hamas fighters.
Two of the trucks, representing Egyptian organizations, sported banners that said, “Together for Humanity.” Another said: “For our brothers in Gaza.”
“The United Nations can confirm that as I speak trucks with humanitarian supplies continues to cross into Gaza through the Rafah crossing point,” said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for OCHA.
Asked whether the United Nations had guarantees from Israel that it could deliver aid to the north, Laerke said: “We proceed on the basis of the hope and the expectation that we will reach people in need, where they are.”
WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said the agency was working on further hospital evacuations as soon as possible. “We’re extremely concerned about the safety of the estimated 100 patients and health workers remaining at Al-Shifa,” he said.
He declined to react to comments from the Gaza health ministry saying it was suspending cooperation with the global health agency amid reports that Israel is holding medical staff for questioning. A WHO statement on that is due later on Friday, he added.
Tommaso Della Longa, spokesperson for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies told Reuters that its local partner had a convoy of ambulances heading north to evacuate patients from Ahli Baptist Hospital.
“We do hope that this pause in the fighting will give us the possibility of reaching all the people in Gaza, including areas in the north where it was impossible to have access,” he said.
