Gaza ceasefire response

Aid groups continue to provide food, health care and other humanitarian services to people returning to northern Gaza. As of earlier today, our partners estimate that more than 375,000 people have crossed from south to north since the opening of the coastal road and Salah al Din road yesterday. Aid workers deployed along those roads are providing those on the move with water, hot meals, high-energy biscuits, hygiene kits and emergency medical care as needed. They are also warning people of the dangers posed by explosive ordnance.

Yesterday, humanitarian partners set up 500 tents at a site northwest of Gaza city and distributed 800 tents in the north to people returning to damaged houses.

Since the beginning of the ceasefire, nutrition partners have provided high energy biscuits to half a million children and pregnant and breastfeeding women and blanket supplementary feeding support to 90,000 children and pregnant and breastfeeding women.

Yesterday, aid workers and volunteers of multiple organizations deployed along the coastal road to provide those on the move with water, hot meals, hygiene kits and emergency medical care as needed. They also warned people of explosive ordnance.

During the first week of the ceasefire, the World Food Programme provided food parcels, hot meals, and cash assistance to 330,000 people in Gaza.

Yesterday, OCHA carried out a needs assessment in the Al Fukhari area, east of Khan Younis, where some 10,000 returnees urgently require water and shelter support. The team also visited returnees in the Abasan area, where some 45,000 people are sheltering in schools and makeshift sites because their homes were destroyed.

Yesterday in Khan Younis and Deir al Balah, humanitarian partners tracking the displacement of people in Gaza carried out assessments at eight sites where about 38,000 people are living. Most said they planned to stay – though those displaced from the north expressed a desire to move once the situation stabilizes. The team noted that people at these sites urgently need food support, shelter assistance, clean water and hygiene kits.

UNICEF says trucks filled with water, hygiene kits, malnutrition treatments, warm clothes, tarpaulins and other critical humanitarian assistance have been entering from crossing points at both the north and south of Gaza and being distributed with partners to families in need. The agency says it aims to deliver 50 trucks a day during the first phase of the ceasefire and has hundreds of pallets of aid prepositioned at Gaza’s borders, with more on the way. On the ground, UNICEF says it is also ramping up critical services – including water, sanitation, nutrition and mental health and psychosocial support.

Today and yesterday, humanitarian partners have been monitoring the movement of displaced families, as tens of thousands gathered next to and then crossed the Israeli checkpoint to the north. Partners have provided them with hot meals, high-energy biscuits and emergency medical care as needed. They report that more than 200,000 people returned from southern Gaza to the north today.

During the first four days of the ceasefire, the World Food Programme delivered more food to people in Gaza than the entire month of December. For its part, UNRWA brought in enough food for 1 million people during the first three days of the ceasefire alone.