Roundup: UN sees increased pace of aid deliveries in Gaza since ceasefire

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Despite rubble and unexploded ordnance, there is a notable increase in the pace of aid delivery in Gaza, a UN spokesperson said Friday.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said the Israelis reported to ceasefire mediators that 950 trucks transited into Gaza on Thursday through crossings they control, including 11 carrying fuel and gas, with 143 of the total trucks passing through Kissufim crossing and the remaining 807 going through Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem.

Dujarric said that UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher, who heads the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), was able to enter the Gaza Strip on Friday.

"He crossed from Egypt through the Israeli side of the Kerem Shalom crossing," the spokesman said.

Dujarric said the United Nations hopes that Israel will permit every UN representative, not so many senior officials, but all the staff needed in Gaza, including nutrition experts, health experts and demining experts.

OCHA said Fletcher drove to Deir al-Balah, where he visited the Castle Bakery, one of nine bakeries that the World Food Programme supports with fuel and ingredients across southern and central Gaza. The bakery used to be the largest in Khan Younis, serving thousands of families until it had to relocate following an Israeli displacement order.

In Deir al-Balah, the relief chief met with those leading the Gaza offices of UN agencies and was to meet more humanitarian workers in the evening and spend the night in Gaza.

Fletcher said that with humanitarian teams delivering on the 60-day plan to massively scale up life-saving work, the challenges ahead are immense, but they are determined to deliver on the humanitarian possibilities created by the peace deal.

OCHA said that before heading into Gaza, at Rafah on Thursday, Fletcher witnessed trucks full of aid heading to Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem. He thanked humanitarian teams, the Egyptian Red Crescent, the authorities and everyone involved in getting the peace deal in place.

The office also said Fletcher on Thursday visited Al Arish Hospital in Egypt, where hundreds of Palestinians evacuated from Gaza were treated.

Also on Thursday, the United Nations and partners continued to collect medical supplies, food, fuel and other cargo from the Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem and Kissufim crossings, including 20 trucks carrying tents, diapers and hygiene kits, three trucks loaded with personal hygiene kits, eight tankers with diesel fuel and two trucks carrying animal fodder.

The office said that families in Gaza continue to move toward newly accessible areas. Its partners monitoring the flow of people across the strip reported that on Wednesday, more than 17,600 movements were recorded from south to north, and 12,900 movements from western to eastern Khan Younis. ■