WFP Urges Israel To Immediately Approval Humanitarian Aid Trucks Enter Gaza

JAKARTA - The United Nations food aid agency needs immediate Israeli approval so its trucks can enter Gaza if it wants to take advantage of Israel's planned humanitarian break in combat, a senior World Food Program (WFP) official said on Sunday.

Facing growing global criticism in line with the World Health Organization (WHO) said mass hunger had hit Gaza, Israel yesterday said it would stop military operations for 10 hours every day in parts of the enclave and allow new aid corridors.

"We don't just need words, but we need action there. We need permission and very fast approval," Ross Smith, WFP emergency director, told Reuters on Sunday.

"If the waiting time continues for up to 10 hours, then we will not be able to take advantage of this pause," he continued.

Meanwhile, COGAT, Israel's military aid coordinating agency, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Since Israel lifted an 11-week blockade in Gaza on May 19 and allowed UN-led humanitarian operations to resume limited shipments, one of the UN's main complaints is the long delay Israel has put in allowing convoys to leave crossing points to transport aid to warehouses and distribution points in Gaza.

UN data shows that only less than 8 percent of the 1,718 WFP trucks have successfully achieved their destination in Gaza in nearly ten weeks since Israel lifted its blockade.

The rest were looted "both peacefully by people who were starving or forced by armed perpetrators during transit," according to UN data.

Israel is known to require the United Nations and other groups to deploy their aid at crossing points and then send trucks from Gaza to pick them up and transport them into war-torn enclaves, where about 2.1 million people still live.

"Everyone can see them driving in, so they know that food will be loaded soon, and they are starting to wait and crowd," Smith said, adding several convoys could wait up to 20 hours before Israel gave them the green light to enter Gaza.

"If they wait there for 10 hours, load and wait, then at that time there were 10,000 people gathered outside," he said.

Israel controls all access to Gaza, saying it allows enough food aid to enter the enclave, where they are fighting against Palestinian militants, Hamas, for nearly 22 months.

Israel accused Hamas of stealing aid, which militants denied, while the United Nations said it had not seen evidence of Hamas' transfer of mass aid in Gaza.

Yesterday, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates deployed 25 tonnes of aid to the Gaza Strip, their first air shipment in months, an official Jordanian source said, adding the aerial shipment was not a substitute for land delivery.

Smith said the delivery of aid by air was "completely symbolic."