UN, Red Cross demand opening of all Gaza crossings to let in aid / Photo: Eyad BABA - AFP
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UN, Red Cross demand opening of all Gaza crossings to let in aid
The United Nations and the international Red Cross called on Tuesday for all crossings into Gaza to be opened to allow desperately needed aid into the Israeli-blockaded Palestinian territory.
The fragile truce in war-ravaged Gaza, introduced under US President Donald Trump's plan, needs to see crossings opened to flood the famine-hit territory with aid, they said.
"That's what humanitarians, including ICRC, have been calling for in the last hours -- making sure that, because of the huge needs, all entry points can be open," International Committee of the Red Cross spokesman Christian Cardon told reporters in Geneva.
Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, added: "We need all of them open."
He acknowledged that not all of the crossings were currently "functional", with some "partially destroyed", while road clearance was needed inside the Gaza Strip to allow trucks in with food, medical aid, fuel, water and other essential supplies.
"We are calling for that to be repaired so that they can become operational," he said.
On August 22, the UN declared a famine in Gaza, the first in the Middle East, after experts warned 500,000 people faced "catastrophic" conditions.
Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza on March 2, allowing nothing in until aid trucks were again permitted at a trickle in late May.
It has accused Hamas of manufacturing a crisis and stealing aid.
The Israeli army is itself accused of having equipped Palestinian criminal networks in its fight against Hamas and of allowing them to plunder aid deliveries.
"The real theft of aid since the beginning of the war has been carried out by criminal gangs, under the watch of Israeli forces," OCHA's Jonathan Whittall said in May.
Laerke said Tuesday that the UN had 190,000 metric tonnes of aid waiting and ready to go into Gaza.
- 'Beyond comprehension' -
UNICEF spokesman Ricardo Pires meanwhile said the UN children's agency had 1,370 trucks ready to enter the territory.
"The level of destruction, again, is so huge that it will take at least 600 trucks a day, which is the aim that we have," he said, acknowledging: "We're far from that".
The World Health Organization also stressed the need to send more aid into Gaza.
"We need to scale up the delivery of medical supplies because the pressure on hospitals is not going to ease overnight," spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told reporters.
"We need really to bring as many supplies as we can right now to make sure that those health workers who are still providing health care have what they what they need."
Since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect on October 10, the WHO had brought eight trucks with medical supplies into Gaza, he said.
Even after such aid gets into Gaza, delivering it could be challenging, Laerke said, pointing to the "very fluid situation" on the ground.
Just over the weekend, there were some 310,000 Palestinians moving from southern Gaza to the north, and another 23,000 moving in the other direction, he said.
At the same time, the UN development agency said the destruction in Gaza was "almost beyond comprehension".
"The debris alone could fill Central Park up to 12 metres (40 feet) high, or equal 13 Great Pyramids of Giza," said Jaco Cilliers, UNDP's special representative for assistance to the Palestinian people.
The destruction is "devastating", he told reporters in Geneva, speaking from Jerusalem, stressing that removing the rubble was vital for aid delivery.
W.Lejeune--JdB
