The UN yesterday welcomed an Israeli decision to “pause” fighting around a south Gaza route daily for aid deliveries, but urged more “concrete measures” to unblock the humanitarian response.
Yesterday’s announcement of a “local, tactical pause of military activity” during daylight hours in an area of Rafah to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance came a day after eight Israeli soldiers were killed in a blast near the far-southern city and three more troops died elsewhere, in one of the heaviest losses for the army in its war against Hamas militants.
“We welcome this announcement,” UN Office for Humanitarian Assistance spokesman Jens Laerke said in an e-mail.
Photo: AFP
However, “this has yet to translate into more aid reaching people in need,” he added.
“We hope this leads to further concrete measures by Israel to address longstanding issues preventing a meaningful humanitarian response in Gaza,” he said.
UN agencies and aid groups have repeatedly sounded the alarm of dire shortages of food and other essentials in the Gaza Strip, exacerbated by overland access restrictions and the closure of the key Rafah crossing with Egypt since Israeli forces seized it early last month.
Israel has long defended its efforts to let aid into Gaza including via its Kerem Shalom border near Rafah, blaming militants for looting supplies and humanitarian workers for failing to distribute them to civilians.
A map released by the Israeli army showed the declared humanitarian route extending until Rafah’s European Hospital, about 10km from Kerem Shalom.
The announcement came as Muslims the world over mark Eid al-Adha, or the feast of the sacrifice.
“This Eid is completely different,” said Umm Muhammad al-Katri in northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp.
“We’ve lost many people, there’s a lot of destruction. We don’t have the joy we usually have,” she said.
Instead of a cheerful holiday spirit, “I came to the Eid prayers mourning. I’ve lost my son,” she said.
Agence France-Presse correspondents in Gaza said there were no reports of strikes, shelling or fighting yesterday morning, although the Israeli military stressed in a statement there was “no cessation of hostilities in the southern Gaza Strip.”
The military said the pause was already in effect and part of efforts to “increase the volumes of humanitarian aid” following discussions with the UN and other organizations.
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