The United Nations says October saw the lowest amount of aid entering Gaza this year, and the territory is receiving “nowhere near what we need to support more than two million Palestinians”
That was the assessment Tuesday from U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric who said that for a second month the U.N. World Food Program was only able to reach half the people that rely on the United Nations for assistance, and only with reduced rations.
Dujarric said that a 14-truck convoy had planned to deliver supplies to shelters in Beit Hanoun and the Indonesian Hospital in Jabaliya in northern Gaza on Monday, where an Israeli offensive is under way, but only two trucks with ready-to-eat meals and wheat flour and one carrying water made it to two shelters.
It was the first time in over a month that people in Beit Hanoun received any food assistance.
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The 11 other trucks didn’t make it because of delays in receiving authorization and crowds along the route, Dujarric said. WFP was planning another mission to Beit Hanon to reach the rest of the shelters and the hospital on Tuesday, but he said “those missions have been denied” by Israel.
He said WFP reported that 15 trucks carried food parcels and wheat through a newly opened crossing into central Gaza at Kissufim for the first time.
“We continue to call for the immediate opening of more land routes into Gaza and for the lifting of administrative and physical restrictions within Gaza to efficiently reach the most vulnerable people and areas,” Dujarric said.
Many civilians in Gaza are hungry, sick, “and desperately need assistance,” he said.
“We want all of the access points to be fully open,” Dujarric said. “We want to have the volume of aid going in that matches the needs. Right now, that’s not the case.”
