The reconstruction process in the devastated Palestinian territory “will take a very long time” despite the promised increase in humanitarian deliveries, warned a UN official in Gaza.
“We’re not just talking about food, health care, buildings, roads, infrastructure. We have individuals, families, communities that need to be rebuilt,” Sam Rose, acting director of the UN’s Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, told the BBC .
After a ceasefire and hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas came into effect on Sunday, at least 1,545 trucks with humanitarian aid entered Gaza, the UN said.
Trucks brought in desperately needed food, tents, blankets, mattresses and winter clothing that had been stuck outside Gaza for months.
The ceasefire deal reportedly calls for 600 aid trucks, including 50 with fuel, to be allowed into Gaza each day during the six-week first phase, during which Hamas is expected to release 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
“We’re expecting a big increase in the amount of aid coming in and of course it’s much easier for us to go and collect that aid because a lot of the problems we’ve faced so far in the war disappear when the fighting stops,” Mr Rose said.
“We no longer move through the zone of active conflict. We no longer have to coordinate all these movements with the Israeli authorities,” he added. “And today we haven’t…faced major problems with robbery and crime.”
But he also stressed that “we have to get away from thinking about the needs of the people of Gaza as a function of the amount of aid.”
“Every person in Gaza is traumatized by what happened. Everyone has lost something. Most of those homes are now destroyed, most of the roads are now destroyed,” he added. “It’s going to be a long, long process of rehabilitation and rebuilding.”
The World Health Organization’s regional director, Hanan Balkhy, meanwhile, said he had a 60-day plan to reactivate Gaza’s health system to meet the urgent needs of the population and prioritize care for the thousands of people with life-changing injuries.
The plan includes repairing Gaza’s hospitals – half of which are out of business and the rest only partially functional – setting up temporary clinics in the worst-hit areas, addressing malnutrition and controlling disease outbreaks.
On Sunday evening, UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher warned that the humanitarian needs of Palestinians in Gaza were “staggering”.
UN officials have previously blamed the humanitarian crisis on Israeli military restrictions on aid deliveries, hostilities and a breakdown in law and order.
Israel insists there is no limit to the amount of aid that can be shipped into and through Gaza and blames UN agencies for the failure to distribute supplies. Hamas has also been accused of stealing aid, which the group denies.
The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, which killed around 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. Israel says 91 hostages remain in captivity.
More than 47,000 people have been killed and 111,000 injured in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have also been displaced multiple times, an estimated 60% of buildings have been damaged or destroyed, health care, water, sanitation and hygiene systems are collapsing, and there are severe shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelters.
In October, the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) estimated that 1.84 million people across Gaza were experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity, with 133,000 facing catastrophic levels that could lead to starvation and death.
The following month, the IPC board warned that there was a high probability that famine was “imminent” in some areas of northern Gaza.
Before the ceasefire, the UN said the besieged northern towns of Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun had been largely cut off from food aid since the Israeli military launched a ground offensive in October with the stated goal of preventing a resurgence of Hamas.
A Palestinian woman who returned to her destroyed home in northern Gaza on Monday after a ceasefire took effect expressed her shock at what she found after Israeli soldiers withdrew.
“The whole place looked like an earthquake had hit it because of the ferocity of the aggression,” Manal Abu al-Dragham told the BBC Arabic program Gaza Today.
“I will set up my tent in the north no matter what it costs… I don’t want to be driven from my land again.”
Mr. Rose said UNRWA teams in southern Gaza, where he is based, have not yet been able to cross into northern Gaza because the Israeli army has not yet opened routes through the east-west Netzarim corridor.
But he said that UNRWA, as the largest humanitarian organization in Gaza, has networks and people on the ground who can help if they are given access.
However, Unrwa faces looming Israeli bans that could make it impossible to operate in Gaza.
Two laws passed by Israel’s parliament, which are set to take effect next week, will ban the agency from operating inside Israeli territory and prevent Israeli government agencies from communicating with it.
Israel has accused UNRWA of complicity with Hamas and said 18 of its staff members took part in the October 7 attack. The agency fired nine employees who the UN investigation found may have been involved and insisted on neutrality.
The UN said UNRWA was indispensable in Gaza, while the agency’s chief commissioner, Philippe Lazzarini, said thousands of Palestinian personnel in Gaza would “remain and fill in” if the Israeli government implemented the two laws, even though it would “come at considerable personal risk” to them.
