The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres has announced that a 20-truck convoy of the Egyptian Red Crescent is moving into Gaza today to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians that have been displaced by the Israel and Hamas War.
The UN Chief who took to his X account (formerly Twitter) to announce the movement of the truck carrying humanitarian aid had earlier pleaded for a "humanitarian ceasefire" in the war between Israel and Gaza's Hamas, demanding global "action to end this godawful nightmare".
Guterres wrote on his X account: "A 20-truck convoy of the Egyptian Red Crescent is moving today into Gaza.
"The people of Gaza need a commitment for much more – a continuous delivery of aid at the scale that is needed.
"We are working nonstop with all relevant parties to make it happen."
While addressing a peace summit in Cairo as the war raged into its third week, Mr Guterres said the Palestinian enclave of 2.4 million people was living through "a humanitarian catastrophe" with thousands dead and more than a million people displaced.
His remarks came just hours after a first contingent of aid trucks rumbled into southern Gaza, which Mr Guterres said needed to be rapidly scaled up, with "much more" help sent through.
The Palestinians need "a continuous delivery of aid to Gaza at the scale that is needed", he told the Cairo "Summit for Peace" which was attended by many Arab leaders.
The current fighting began on 7 October when Hamas militants stormed across the Gaza border into Israel, launching an attack that has killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians, in the deadliest attack on Israeli soil since the state was founded in 1948.
Israel has hit back with a relentless bombing campaign, killing more than 4,100 Palestinians, mainly civilians, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.
With the escalation of the air bombing of Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City which claimed at least 500 people many of whom children and women with hundreds other gravelly injured. The airstrikes have been blamed on Israel and in turn Israel had denied responsibility claiming that it was a rocket fired by Islamic Jihadist that veered off course and exploded in the hospital.
Although diplomatic efforts to end the violence have made little headway, Cairo - historically a key mediator between Hamas and Israel - announced plans to hold the summit a week into the war, urging "restraint" and calling for a return to peace talks, which have been frozen for years.
Diplomatic efforts have so far focused on getting humanitarian aid into the war-torn enclave where Israel has imposed a total siege, cutting off supplies of water, electricity, fuel and food.
At the moment, the United Nations humanitarian affairs office said more than 140,000 homes - nearly a third of all homes in Gaza - have been reduced to damaged, with nearly 13,000 completely destroyed.
Western leaders have so far mostly offered support to Israel's campaign against Hamas, although there is mounting pressure about the plight of civilians in Gaza.
0 Comments