Unicef says Gaza aid operation among ‘most complex in the world’ as it prepares for ceasefire surge

UN agency has enough lifesaving supplies to send 1,300 lorries into Gaza once truce begins on Sunday

A Palestinian carries an aid box distributed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Deir Al Balah, central Gaza Strip, on November 4. Reuters

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Nutrition, water sanitation kits, hygiene kits and items for neonatal care are some of the supplies Unicef has prepared to send into Gaza on 1,300 lorries once the border crossings open under the terms of a ceasefire that starts on Sunday morning, Unicef communication specialist Rosalia Bollen told The National.

It remains unclear which of the crossings into Gaza will be open and when to allow 600 lorryloads of assistance a day into the enclave once the six-week first stage of the ceasefire begins.

Another challenge facing aid teams is the possibility of looting, which Ms Bollen said was a “deep, deep concern” for Unicef and other humanitarian organisations.

Armed robbery of aid convoys has been a problem since the start of the war on October 7, 2023, when Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and took about 250 hostages back to Gaza.

Israel's military retaliation has killed nearly 47,000 people, mostly women and children, in Gaza since then. At least 110,450 others have been wounded and more than 11,000 people are missing, many believed to lying under rubble, according to Gaza's health authority.

The collapse of Gaza internal security forces and Israel's failure to create a secure environment for the distribution of aid has emboldened criminal gangs, humanitarian officials previously told The National.

“Gaza doesn't have an operating environment that allows us to bring in supplies safely,” Ms Bollen said, adding that looting and the trickle of aid allowed in caused prices to surge in Gaza.

Gaza before and after war between Israel and Hamas

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“Insufficient supplies have come in, creating scarcity of literally everything, from food to hygiene items, making it lucrative for criminals and giving them incentive to loot and hoard items so the prices go up further and they can try to re-sell them,” she said.

The looting contributes to further scarcity. “It's a vicious cycle,” Ms Bollen said, calling for law and order to be restored and community policing.

“We don't have a guarantee that that'll happen automatically once a ceasefire is in place,” she said.

Other difficulties involve travelling around Gaza to distribute the aid, she said.

“The operation environment in Gaza is one of the most complex in the world. There are access and logistical constraints regarding the infrastructure which is largely destroyed, with hardly any paved roads,” she said.

With less than 24 hours to go before the ceasefire is set to come into effect at 8.30am local time, aid groups said they were still not clear about how assistance would be allowed to enter Gaza.

“There are reports that Rafah border is going to be the entry point for most of the aid, but nothing is clear right now,” the Director of Disaster Risk Management at the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), Abdul Aziz Abu Eisha, told The National.

There is also the question of whether aid will allowed in on the same lorries that take it to the border crossings, or it will have to be unloaded and then loaded on to lorries already in Gaza.

“There are shortages of vehicles inside the strip – many of which have been destroyed during the 15 months of bombardment,” Mr Abu Eisha said.

He is set to travel to northern Gaza ahead of an influx of displaced people wanting to return home from the south, where most of the strip's population has moved.

Northern Gaza has been under Israeli siege and bombardment since October, with restricted access for aid and humanitarian personnel, leaving the true scale of the needs and destruction there unclear.

Ms Bollen said the people she had spoken to are very eager to return to the north, even if their homes are no longer standing.

The UN estimates that nearly 70 per cent of Gaza's entire infrastructure, including housing, is either damaged or destroyed, and that nine in 10 people in the enclave of 2.1 million are displaced.

“We need to factor in seeing a large and chaotic population movement from the south to the north,” Ms Bollen said. “People talk about dreaming of sleeping in their own beds. They no longer want to sleep in tents and on the floor.”

This northern movement will require aid agencies to move their operations there as well, she said.