By Olivia Le Poidevin
GENEVA (Reuters) -The U.N. children’s charity UNICEF called on Friday for all crossings for food aid into war-shattered Gaza to be opened, saying children in the territory were especially vulnerable because they have 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.
SCALE-UP COULD SEE 600 TRUCKS A DAY ENTERING GAZA
Israeli troops began pulling back from some parts of the Palestinian territory on Friday under a ceasefire deal with Hamas, in the first phase of an initiative by U.S. President Donald Trump to end the two-year-old war.
The United Nations plans to ramp up its delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, where some areas are experiencing famine, in the first 60 days of a ceasefire in the enclave, a top U.N. official said on Thursday.
An Israeli security source and the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) said they expect about 600 aid trucks to enter Gaza daily.
“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,” Ross Smith, WFP Director of Emergencies, told Reuters on Friday.
The WFP expects to begin scaling up deliveries early next week, but that would depend on the withdrawal of Israeli forces so that humanitarian safe zones can be expanded.
COGAT, the arm of the Israeli military that oversees aid flows into Gaza, did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.
In a televised address, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces would stay in Gaza to ensure the territory was demilitarised and that Hamas disarmed in future stages of Trump’s plan.
Access to northern Gaza is critical, the WFP said, with up to 400,000 people who have not received assistance for several weeks.
The agency has urged improved scanning and approval of aid convoys to speed truck entry.
UNICEF said 50,000 children were at risk of acute malnutrition and in need of immediate treatment. UNICEF also aims to provide one million blankets for every child in Gaza and hopes to deliver wheelchairs and crutches, which it said had previously been blocked.
UN ROLES STILL UNCLEAR
Both UNICEF and the U.N. Palestinian refugee relief agency UNRWA said they have yet to receive details on their roles during the ceasefire.
UNRWA, which is banned from operating in Israel, has urged the Israeli authorities to allow it to take 6,000 trucks’ worth of aid into Gaza, including enough food to feed the population for three months, from Jordan and Egypt.
“We’ve not had any progress to move those supplies into Gaza … and this is absolutely critical in controlling the spread of famine,” Juliette Touma, the spokesperson for UNRWA, said.
CARE International told Reuters on Friday it still had not received clearance for its supplies to enter as it faces ongoing registration barriers, like other agencies including the Norwegian Refugee Council.
“We still need clarity on how we’ll be able to get supplies into Gaza that have been stuck outside for months,” said Jolien Veldwijk, CARE Palestine Country Director.
(Reporting by Olivia Le PoidevinEditing by Miranda Murray and Frances Kerry)
