UN faces roadblocks in delivering aid to famine-hit areas of north Gaza

The U.N. said on Friday aid convoys were struggling to reach famine-hit areas of north Gaza due to war-damaged roads and the continued closure of key routes into the enclave's north despite a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas militants.

Around 560 metric tons of food had entered the Gaza Strip per day on average since the U.S.-brokered halt to two years of devastating war but this was still well below the scale of need, according to the U.N. World Food Program (WFP).

With famine conditions in the Gaza City region, U.N. humanitarian affairs chief Tom Fletcher said this week thousands of aid vehicles would have to enter weekly to tackle widespread malnutrition, homelessness and a collapse of infrastructure.

"We're still below what we need, but we're getting there... The ceasefire has opened a narrow window of opportunity, and WFP is moving very quickly and swiftly to scale up food assistance," WFP spokesperson Abeer Etefa told a news briefing in Geneva.

But the WFP said it had not begun distributions in Gaza City, pointing to the continued closure of two border crossings, Zikim and Erez, with Israel in the north of the enclave where the humanitarian debacle is most acute.


Reuters