Gaza, MINA – The United Nations announced Wednesday that humanitarian efforts in the Gaza Strip are increasing despite ongoing challenges, following Israel’s decision to reopen the Zikim crossing for aid deliveries.
Citing information from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said during a press briefing that “the humanitarian response continues to ramp up, despite the many constraints that remain.”
“We and our partners stress that these impediments must be lifted so we can expand the response as quickly as possible to meet all the needs,” he added.
Dujarric confirmed that Israeli authorities had informed the UN that the Zikim crossing, located between Israel and northern Gaza, will reopen for humanitarian cargo. “In recent weeks, we have been repairing the road leading to Zikim inside Gaza in preparation for this reopening, and we are now carrying out the final checks, including for potential explosive hazards,” he said.
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The reopening of Zikim will allow aid cargo to move through the newly repaired route, although logistical challenges remain. “For now, cargo will need to be scanned elsewhere, offloaded from Israeli trucks, and then reloaded onto Palestinian trucks on separate days,” Dujarric noted, emphasizing that the process remains highly complicated.
The crossing had been closed for the past two months, cutting off direct supply routes into northern Gaza. “Your description of the process as complicated is an understatement,” Dujarric remarked when asked about Israel’s strict entry procedures.
He added that discussions with Israeli authorities are ongoing to simplify aid delivery.
“We keep pushing for ways to simplify this. We hope that cargo will be able to be screened at the crossing itself as soon as possible,” he said.
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Dujarric also reported that around 4,000 movements of people were recorded over the past week from southern Gaza to the north, as the UN continues distributing shelter materials and winter supplies.
Meanwhile, he warned of a potential communications crisis after a damaged fiber-optic cable near the Erez crossing disrupted internet services since Nov. 6.
“Partners’ repair requests have been delayed by Israeli authorities and denied,” he said, warning that “a prolonged outage could lead to an Internet blackout across Gaza,” endangering humanitarian operations.[]
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
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