Gaza’s desperate population receives restricted amount of aid today – UN agency
24 November 2008 – Israel reopened crossings into the Gaza Strip today, allowing limited supplies to reach the 1.5 million inhabitants largely dependent on humanitarian aid, the Â鶹APP Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) reported today.
UNSCO said that today’s supplies into Gaza included nine truckloads of goods for the UN World Food Programme (WFP), and eight trucks containing powdered milk and rice for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
Some 440,000 litres of industrial gas were also pumped through to Gaza’s power plant, temporarily reducing the number of blackouts threatening Gaza City.
UNRWA stressed that it needed to bring almost double the number of trucks into Gaza to be able to continue running its operation at an acceptable level, and requested that 12 trucks of food and three trucks of medicine have access tomorrow.
Israel had closed crossing points into Gaza this month following Palestinian rocket attacks, leaving the Strip without access to fuel, humanitarian supplies or commercial commodities and forcibly confining the population to the territory.
Document Sources: Â鶹APP Department of Public Information (DPI), Â鶹APP News Service, Â鶹APP Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Â鶹APP Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO), World Food Programme (WFP)
Subject: Access and movement, Assistance, Closures/Curfews/Blockades, Food, Gaza Strip, Humanitarian relief, Living conditions
Publication Date: 24/11/2008