UN ready to surge humanitarian aid to Gaza once it gets ‘green light’
United Nations officials are in touch with mediators trying to end the war on Gaza and will get aid into the enclave as soon as they get the “green light”, says UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
“We’ve been ready and the machinery is cranked up and ready to go as soon as we get the green light,” he said.
“There are many thousands of metric tons in the pipeline of goods ready to enter” from Jordan, the Israeli port of Ashdod, and elsewhere, Dujarric added.
UN allocates $9m to keep life-saving services running in Gaza
UN humanitarian relief chief Tom Fletcher has allocated $9m from the Central Emergency Response Fund to maintain fuel supplies crucial for life-saving services in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.
Israeli air strikes have been reduced in recent days, shelling and gunfire “continued over the weekend, with 21 people reportedly killed and 96 injured yesterday”, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement, Gaza’s Health Ministry.
“Humanitarian access and movement across Gaza remain challenging,” said OCHA, noting on Sunday eight aid missions coordinated with Israeli authorities were facilitated, including the installation of solar panels in Deir el-Balah and the movement of fuel, food, and health supplies from the Karem Abu Salam (Karem Shalom) crossing.
However, “six other missions were denied and five had to be cancelled by the organisers”.
