UN says more aid getting into starving Gaza
A United Nations official says life-saving assistance is being funneled into war-ravaged Gaza under the initial 60-day ceasefire phase.
Israel has cleared “our pipeline to 190,000 metric tonnes [of aid] as of yesterday”, said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
“These supplies are across the region – in Jordan, Egypt, Israel, Cyprus and the West Bank – and are ready to move. Some was already on the way yesterday for the first time since March,” he added.
“More tents for displaced families, frozen meat, fresh fruit, flour and medicines also crossed into Gaza throughout the day in many areas. So our teams are reaching people in places that have been cut off for up to several months.”
A Palestinian girl sits by aid parcels after aid trucks entered from the Karem Abu Salem crossing
‘A very dystopian reality right now for Palestinians’
Ines Abdel Razek, the co-director of the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy, says that this is the start of a very difficult period for the Palestinians, even though many are trying to portray the ceasefire as the end of the struggle.
“I think a lot of Palestinians have many mixed feelings today,” Razek told Al Jazeera from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
She said it is a moment of joy for the Palestinians since they are welcoming prisoners after decades of them being away , and people in Gaza celebrate the ceasefire after years of war.
“But I think we live in a very dystopian reality right now, where Israel is patting itself on the back and the world is celebrating war criminals,” Razek said.
“Israel and Netanyahu have blood on their hands,” she also said, stressing that Israel’s control of the Palestinian territories is not over even after the genocide carried out by Israel.
