UNITED Nations aid agencies issued urgent appeals Tuesday for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, warning that worsening winter conditions and relentless military operations are creating a humanitarian catastrophe as an estimated 400,000 Palestinians have been newly displaced.
The calls came as international attention focused on a new 20-point U.S. peace plan that has raised hopes of halting the fighting in the war-shattered enclave.
“It’s important that we get that ceasefire and then we get aid flowing in not only to prevent the famine that continues to move to the south, but also to make sure that children and families are sheltered,” UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires told reporters in Geneva.
Ongoing Israeli military operations in Gaza City are forcing massive population movements from north to south, overwhelming the coastal tented settlement at Al-Mawasi, which aid workers say “can simply not absorb the quantity of people who are moving in.”
According to the UN aid coordination office, only about 18 percent of the Gaza Strip remains free from displacement orders or militarised zones.
Pires warned that plummeting temperatures will create “a whole different range of issues,” including severe health challenges for children and families. UNICEF has 11,000 tents and tarpaulin sheets ready for distribution, but cannot get the supplies into Gaza.
“It just shows how the conditions in terms of logistics and facilitation of aid continue to be very, very poor,” he said.
OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke described the current situation as “chaotic,” noting that while some aid has entered—with 137 community kitchens across Gaza preparing 660,000 meals last Sunday—distribution remains severely compromised.
The UN reported that more than 40 percent of humanitarian missions requiring coordination with the Israeli military were denied on Sunday.
“A lot of the aid that has come in recently, that has been picked up, has been taken off the trucks by desperate people and in some cases by armed groups,” Laerke said.
He emphasised the “absolute” need for an immediate ceasefire to enable humanitarians to resume “a proper and well-coordinated, well-supplied aid operation.”
