Antonio Getterres at COP27, photo: Gehad Hamdy / AFP / Profimedia Images
The Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Getterres, said on Friday that the Palestinians “endure the most cruel phase” of the Gaza War, where over a dozen truck with food were plundered after partial relaxation of a long Israeli blockade, AFP reports.
The aid was just beginning to enter the enchantment devastated by the war, after Israel announced that it would allow a limited number of deliveries, in the context of an extended offensive in order to destroy Hamas.
Mohammed Al-Mughayyir, an official of the Civil Defense Agency in Gaza, told AFP that at least 71 people were killed in Israeli air attacks on Friday, with dozens of injured “and a large number of disappeared under the ruins.”
The head of the UN, Antonio Getterres, said that “Palestinians in Gaza endure what could be the cruel phase of this cruel conflict”, adding that Israel “must agree and facilitate” humanitarian deliveries.
However, he emphasized the difficulties, mentioning that, out of the nearly 400 trucks authorized to enter Gaza in the last days, only the loads of 115 could be collected. The official considers that “in any case” the authorized aid so far is well below the population in the Palestinian enclosure.
“Meanwhile, the Israeli military offensive intensifies, with atrocious levels of dead and destruction,” added the UN Secretary General.
The world food program (PAM) said on Friday that a number of 15 of “his trucks were robbed last night in the south of the gas, as they were heading for bakeries supported by PAM.”
“Hunger, despair and anxiety about the arrival of several food aid contribute to increasing insecurity,” said the body within the UN, asking for Israeli authorities “to offer much higher volumes of food assistance faster.”
The deliveries of aid to the Gaza strip were resumed on Monday, for the first time after March 2, in the context of increasingly intense critics for the Israeli blockade, which led to serious food and medicine.
Cogat, the institution subordinated to the Israeli Ministry of Defense that supervises the civilian issues in the Palestinian territories, claims that Thursday entered Gaza 107 trucks with humanitarian aid. However, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN Agency for Palestinian refugees, said on Friday that the UN has brought between 500 and 600 champions a day in the six weeks of the armistice that was broken in March.
“No one should be surprised, shocked by the scenes in which the precious aids are robbed, stolen or” lost “,” Lazzarini told X, adding that “the people in Gaza were starved” for more than 11 weeks.
