Kinshasa, May 20th, 2025 (CPA ) – The United Nations Organisation (UNO) is authorised on Tuesday by Israel to bring ‘around 100’ trucks of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, after 11 weeks of total blockade by the Hebrew state, the international media reported.
‘We have requested and received permission for many more trucks to enter today (…) and we expect a large number of them, and we hope that all of them, to cross the border today’, has reported Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs. Five of them have so far crossed at the Kerem Shalom crossing. Once the Israeli forces have allowed the Lorries into the Gaza Strip, they are collected by UN teams, who then take charge of transporting them so that aid can be distributed. Four of the first five trucks are managed by the World Food Programme (WFP) and one by UNICEF. Jens Laerke has indicated that the next step would be to collect the aid and distribute it through the existing system, which has proved its worth.
Gaza: the UN authorised to bring in ‘around 100’ Lorries of humanitarian aid
The UN’s head of humanitarian operations, Tom Fletcher, described the nine UN humanitarian aid trucks authorised to enter the Gaza Strip on Monday as ‘a drop in the ocean’ after 11 weeks of total blockade by Israel. The United Nations and international aid organisations operating in the Gaza Strip have been denouncing the shortages for weeks.
According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report published on May 12th, the coastal territory is facing a ‘critical risk of famine’. The head of the World Health Organisation has said that two million people were starving in Gaza, while tonnes of food were blocked at the border. But given the immensity of the population’s needs, humanitarian organisations have estimated that far more than dozens of Lorries are needed.
‘The Gaza Strip has been under siege for 11 weeks and all we are doing today is trying to repair the damage that has already been done to many people’, has said Louise Wateridge, spokeswoman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa). Israel had announced last Sunday that it was allowing a limited resumption of humanitarian aid, in parallel with the launch of ‘large-scale ground operations’ in Gaza. CPA/