Over 24,000 tonnes of aid collected from Gaza crossings since ceasefire: UN spokesperson

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations and its humanitarian partners have collected over 24,000 metric tonnes of aid from the Gaza Strip crossings since the ceasefire came into effect on Oct. 10, a UN spokesperson said Friday, citing the UN 2720 Mechanism.

"More people in need have also been able to access this aid, which includes food, medicine and medical supplies, nutritional supplements and shelter materials, through the resumption of community- and household-based distributions and services," Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, told a daily briefing.

In addition, there has been a significant reduction in the interception, or looting, of supplies collected by the United Nations and its partners from Gaza's crossings, he said, adding that between Oct. 10 and 28, only 5 percent of collected supplies were reportedly intercepted, compared with about 80 percent between May 19 and Oct. 9.

Dujarric said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) expected the amount of supplies intercepted to continue to decline as more humanitarian and commercial supplies can enter. "We continue to call for all crossing points to be open and more UN agencies and organizations authorized to bring in aid supplies into Gaza."

Meanwhile, OCHA said that humanitarian partners continue their scale-up efforts despite reported Israeli airstrikes across the strip, and reminded the Israeli military of its obligation to take constant care to spare civilians and aid workers throughout all its military operations.

Since the start of the ceasefire, the World Health Organization has delivered over 840 pallets of life-saving medical supplies into Gaza, including insulin, assistive devices, essential medicines, cholera kits and surgical kits.

Despite these positive developments, Gaza's health system continues to face significant challenges in addressing the immense needs of people in Gaza, said Dujarric, adding that as of Oct. 7, more than 1,700 health workers had been killed since the start of the war, according to Gaza's health authorities.

On the education front, humanitarian partners are expanding their interventions to restore minimum teaching and learning conditions for over 630,000 school-aged children who have lost over two years of schooling, and supporting the rehabilitation of more than 90 classrooms in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis, out of over 2,000 classrooms that require rehabilitation across the Gaza Strip, said the spokesperson. ■