Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are experiencing a brief period of calm after nearly 50 days of relentless bombardment by Israeli forces.
The United Nations said the four-day truce between Israel and Hamas, which went into effect on Friday, has enabled it to scale up the delivery of food, water and medicine to the largest volume since the resumption of humanitarian aid convoys to Gaza on October 21.
The UN was also able to deliver 129,000 litres (34,078 gallons) of fuel – just over 10 percent of the daily pre-war volume – as well as cooking gas, for the first time since the war began.
In Rafah in southern Gaza on Saturday, many waited to fill gas canisters for cooking. “All the people are hoping and ready for it to make their lives easier,” said one resident, Ezzeddine Abu Omeira.
For the first time in over a month, aid also reached northern Gaza, the focus of Israel’s ground offensive. A UN convoy delivered flour to two facilities sheltering people displaced by the fighting.
Prior to the war, 500 trucks crossed into Gaza daily, according to OCHA, the United Nations humanitarian agency.
The UN estimates that 1.7 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced by the fighting which began on October 7.
