The reconstruction process in the devastated Palestinian territory will take “a lot of time” despite the promised increase in humanitarian deliveries, a UN official in Gaza has warned.
“We're not just talking about food, health care, buildings, roads, infrastructure. We have individuals, families, communities that need to be rebuilt,” said Sam Rose, acting director of the UN agency. for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, said the BBC.
After a ceasefire and hostilities resolution agreement between Israel and Hamas took effect on Sunday, at least 1,545 aid trucks have entered Gaza, the UN said.
The trucks brought in food, tents, blankets, mattresses and winter clothes that had been locked outside Gaza for months.
The ceasefire agreement reportedly calls for 600 aid trucks, including 50 carrying fuel, to be allowed into Gaza every day during the first a phase that will last six weeks, when Hamas should release 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.
“We are expecting a big increase in the amount of aid coming in, and it is actually much easier for us to go and collect that aid because many of the problems we have had in the war so far leaving when the fight is there. stop,” said Mr. Rose.
“We are no longer moving through an active conflict zone. We no longer need to coordinate all these movements with the Israeli authorities,” he said. “And we have not today … faced serious problems with looting and crime.”
But he also emphasized that “we have to get away from thinking of the needs of people in Gaza as a function of the amount of aid”.
“Everyone in Gaza is devastated by what has happened. Everyone has lost something. Most of these homes are now destroyed, the most of the roads are destroyed now,” he said. “It's going to be a long, long process of rehabilitation and rebuilding.”
At the same time, the regional director of the World Health Organization, Hanan Balkhy, said that they had a 60-day plan to get the Gaza health system back fed to meet the urgent needs of the population and prioritize care for thousands of people with life-changing injuries.
The plan includes repairing Gaza's hospitals – half of which are out of service and the others only partially functional – setting up temporary clinics in the hardest hit areas, dealing with lack of nutrition and controlling disease outbreaks.
Drone footage showed widespread destruction in the northern town of Jabalia (Reuters)
On Sunday night, UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher warned that the humanitarian needs of Palestinians in Gaza were “staggering”.
UN officials have blamed the humanitarian crisis on Israel's military restrictions on aid delivery, hostilities and violations of law and order.
Israel has insisted there are no limits on the amount of aid that can be delivered into and across Gaza and blames UN agencies for not dispersing them. supply. He also accuses Hamas of stealing aid, which the group denies.
The Israeli military launched an operation to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, in which approximately 1,200 people were killed and 251 kidnapped. Israel says 91 of the hostages are still in captivity.
More than 47,000 people have been killed and 111,000 wounded in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run region's health ministry.
Most of Gaza's 2.3 million population has also been displaced several times, it is estimated that 60% of buildings have been damaged or destroyed, the health care, water, sanitation and hygiene systems has collapsed, and there is a severe shortage of food, fuel, medicine and shelter. .
In October, the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC) estimated that 1.84 million people across Gaza were experiencing high levels of food insecurity, and that 133,000 people were experiencing levels of catastrophic, which could cause starvation and death.
The following month, the IPC committee warned that there was a strong likelihood that famine was “approaching” in some areas of northern Gaza.
Before the ceasefire, the UN said the northern towns of Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun had been largely cut off from food aid since the Israeli military launched an offensive in October with the stated aim of preventing resurgence. Hamas.
A Palestinian woman who returned to her devastated home in northern Gaza on Monday after the ceasefire came into effect was shocked by what she found after Israeli troops pulled out.
“The whole place looked as if an earthquake had struck because of the severity of the attack,” Manal Abu al-Dragham told BBC Arabic's Gaza Today programme.
“I will set up shop in the north no matter what it costs … I don't want to be driven from my country again.”
(BBC)
Mr. Rose said Unrwa teams in southern Gaza, where it is based, were unable to cross into northern Gaza because the Israeli military had not yet opened routes through the east-west Netzarim corridor.
But he said that Unrwa, as the largest humanitarian organization in Gaza, had the networks and the people on the ground who could help if given the chance.
However, Unrwa is facing an Israeli ban that could make it impossible to work in Gaza.
Two laws passed by Israel's parliament, due to come into effect next week, will ban the group from operating inside Israeli territory and ban Israeli state agencies. from communicating with him.
Israel has accused Unrwa of involvement with Hamas and said 18 of its employees took part in the October 7 attack. The group has fired nine employees who may have been involved in a UN investigation and said they are committed to neutrality.
The UN has said UNRWA cannot be replaced in Gaza while the agency's commissioner general, Philippe Lazzarini, has said thousands of Palestinian workers will remain in Gaza “and deliver” if invited. The Israeli government enforced both laws, even if it came “at great personal risk” to them.
