Britain, France, Germany call on UNSC to back Trump plan
The leaders of Britain, France and Germany have urged the UN Security Council to support US President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, the first stage of which came into effect this morning.
“We agree that the UN Security Council should give its full backing to the plan and support its implementation,” the so-called E3 group of nations said in a statement.
“We pay tribute to President Trump’s leadership on the issue, to the diplomatic efforts of the mediators, Egypt, Qatar and Turkiye, and to the vital support from the wider region to secure the agreement.”
The leaders pressed for “substantive humanitarian aid packages through UN agencies” to be delivered “as soon as the ceasefire enters into effect”.
The Associated Press reported earlier that Israel gave the UN the green light to begin delivering aid into Gaza starting on Sunday.
UN official says scaled-up aid deliveries to Gaza to begin Sunday
The United Nations has been given the green light by Israel to begin delivering aid into Gaza starting on Sunday, The Associated Press reports.
A UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet made public, said the aid will include 170,000 metric tons already been positioned in neighbouring countries such as Jordan and Egypt, as humanitarian officials awaited permission from Israeli forces to restart their work.
In the last several months, the UN and its humanitarian partners have only been able to deliver 20 percent of the aid needed in the Gaza Strip, according to UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher.
Sure people can wait another 2 days... The ceasefire better not be over on Tuesday after the prisoner exchange.
UNICEF demands food entry to stop ‘massive spike in child death’
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called for Israel to open all crossings for massive aid entry into Gaza, saying children are especially vulnerable because they’ve gone without proper food for long periods.
“The situation is critical. We risk seeing a massive spike in child death, not only neonatal, but also infants, given their immune systems are more compromised than ever before,” said UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires.
Children’s immunity is low because “they haven’t been eating properly and recently at all for way too long”, he said.
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said it expects about 600 aid trucks to enter Gaza daily in the coming days.
“Under the ceasefire arrangement, we will have more than 145 community distribution points, in addition to up to 30 bakeries and all of our nutrition sites,” said Ross Smith, WFP’s director of emergencies.
A Palestinian mother cradles her sick 18-month-old son at the al-Shati refugee camp near Gaza City in July
UNRWA says 6,000 trucks of aid could reach Gaza in hours
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has called for all the crossings into the Strip to be opened to allow “a standard flow of humanitarian aid” to Palestinians in need.
“People are hungry and beyond exhausted from two years of war,” UNRWA said in a social media post.
