90 truckloads of UN aid delivered to Gazans, breaking 11-week blockade

UNITED NATIONS -- The first aid in 11 weeks delivered to Gazans includes nutrition supplies, flour, medicines and other critical goods, UN humanitarians said Thursday.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said about 90 trucks loaded at the Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem checkpoint headed for multiple destinations, carrying the supplies to Gazans facing the threat of famine.

OCHA said nearly 20 truckloads, carrying about 500 pallets of nutrition supplies, were safely offloaded in UNICEF's warehouse in Deir al Balah. The material delivered includes ready-to-use therapeutic food and lipid-based nutritional supplements. The life-saving supplies are being unpacked and repackaged into smaller loads to dozens of distribution points.

A handful of bakeries in southern and central Gaza, supported by the World Food Programme, have resumed bread production, the office said.

These bakeries are now operational, distributing bread through community kitchens. However, after nearly 80 days of a total blockade of humanitarian assistance, families still face a high risk of famine, and far more aid is needed across all of Gaza, it said.

OCHA stressed that the shipment is limited in quantity and nowhere near sufficient to meet the scale and scope of the needs of Gaza's 2.1 million people. Other supplies as basic as fresh food, hygiene items, water purification agents, and fuel to power hospitals have not been let in for over 80 days.

Stephane Dujarric, chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said it is important for commercial trucking to resume to supply markets with fresh fruits and vegetables.

He said the latest analysis from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification committee concluded that people across Gaza are at risk of famine, with nearly 500,000 people teetering on the edge of starvation.

The spokesman said humanitarian workers in Gaza going to and from the Kerem Shalom crossing have to travel through an Israeli-militarized area.

"This means that our teams need to wait, often for hours, for military activities to pause for their safety for a green light to be given by the Israeli authorities to proceed," he told a regular briefing. "We also need to ensure the use of secure routes from Kerem Shalom onward into Gaza, as we did last (Wednesday) night and hope to do again today (Thursday)."

The spokesman also reminded reporters that military operations continue across the Gaza Strip, with reports of strikes, shelling and fresh ground incursions.

"In recent days, our colleagues on the ground report that attacks have struck tents and buildings where people are sheltering, causing scores of casualties," he said.

OCHA said Israeli authorities must facilitate the movement of humanitarian convoys, including from southern Gaza to the north, so that all supplies can reach people in need wherever they are across the Gaza Strip.

The office said Al Awda Hospital of North Gaza caught fire on Thursday, reportedly after being attacked. Through coordination with Israeli authorities, OCHA facilitated access for Palestinian Civil Defense to the area, where they spent hours fighting the fire. According to initial reports, the medicine warehouse was heavily damaged.

OCHA also said water wells in some areas of Gaza are shutting down as they remain out of reach or lack fuel. It said Israeli authorities continue to deny attempts to retrieve fuel from areas where coordination is required.