By Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United Nations said on Tuesday it has failed to distribute aid in the Gaza Strip from the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom border crossing due to lawlessness and panic among the area’s hungry people, despite Israel’s daily pause in military activities. .
The Israeli army said on Sunday that until further notice there would be a daily pause in its attacks from 05:00 GMT to 16:00 GMT along the road leading from Israel through the Kerem Shalom crossing to the Salah al-Din Road and north into Gaza .
The UN welcomed the move, UN spokesman Farhan Haq said on Tuesday, but added that “this still needs to translate into more aid reaching people in need.” He said the area between Kerem Shalom and Salah al-Din road was very dangerous.
“Fighting is not the only reason why we cannot collect aid… The lack of any police or rule of law in the area makes it very dangerous to transport goods there,” he said.
“But we are ready to work with all parties to ensure that aid reaches the people of Gaza, and we will continue to work with the authorities and security forces in an effort to see what can be done to improve security conditions achieve,” Haq said.
“When aid arrives, people go hungry and fear this will be the last food they see,” he said. “They need to be sure that there will be a regular flow of goods so that there is no panic when we arrive in the area.”
The United Nations and aid agencies have long complained about the dangers and obstacles in obtaining and distributing aid in Gaza, where the UN had warned that a famine was looming.
Since the war between Israel and Hamas began more than eight months ago, aid for 2.3 million Palestinians has mainly arrived through two border crossings into southern Gaza: the Rafah crossing from Egypt and the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel.
But deliveries were disrupted when Israel stepped up military operations in Rafah last month with the aim of routing remaining units of Hamas fighters. Egypt has closed the Rafah crossing due to the threat posed by humanitarian work and has channeled a backlog of aid and fuel through Kerem Shalom.
Haq said on Tuesday that the Rafah border crossing remained closed and there was limited access through Kerem Shalom. In northern Gaza, he said the Erez border crossing was inaccessible due to an escalation of fighting, while the West Erez and Zikim crossings were operational.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
