“UN teams stand ready” – UN plan to expand aid in Gaza

In statements to reporters in New York via video from the Saudi capital, Riyadh, which he is visiting as part of a foreign tour, Fletcher said: “(US) President Donald Trump’s peace plan must be the basis for life-saving work in the region, and to save tens of thousands of lives. So we must seize this moment with collective will, determination and generosity.”.

Among the efforts that UN humanitarian teams intend to undertake according to the plan, as detailed by Fletcher:

• Food:

  • Increasing the number of aid trucks entering Gaza daily to hundreds.
  • Expand food provision across Gaza to reach 2.1 million people in need of food assistance, and approximately 500,000 people in need of nutritional items.
  • Support bakeries and community kitchens.
  • Support herders and fishermen in restoring their livelihoods.
  • Providing cash assistance to 200,000 families to cover basic food needs, enhance their ability to adapt, and give them a sense of dignity.
  • Increase nutrition screening and provide nutritional supplies including high-energy and nutrient-dense foods to the most vulnerable groups, including pregnant and lactating women, children and adolescents.

• health:

  • Rehabilitating the health system that was destroyed.
  • Providing basic medical supplies.
  • Re-establish a disease surveillance system at the community level.
  • Supporting emergency referrals and further medical evacuations.
  • Help expand emergency care, primary health care, child health, sexual and reproductive health, and maternal and newborn health.
  • Expanding care for non-communicable diseases, mental health and rehabilitation.
  • Help strengthen outbreak preparedness, monitoring, logistics and referral systems.

• Water and sanitation:

  • Targeting 1.4 million people with water and sanitation services.
  • Help restore water systems and reduce people’s dependence on water trucks by providing fuel, generators and chemicals.
  • Installing domestic toilets, repairing sewage leaks and pumping stations.
  • Transporting solid waste away from residential areas.
  • Providing personal hygiene supplies.

• Shelter:

  • Significantly expand shelter provision, including helping families prepare for winter.
  • Bringing and distributing thousands of tents weekly, in addition to plastic sheets and other supplies.
  • Focus on the largest and most vulnerable families, and on those living in extremely harsh conditions in underserved and overcrowded areas.
  • Giving priority to newly displaced people and returnees who lost their homes.

• education:

  • Reopening temporary learning spaces to provide activities to 700,000 school-age children,
  • Providing these children with educational materials and school supplies.

Ensuring protection and implementing the plan

Fletcher stressed that in order to implement this plan “Which we can implement. We have done it before.”The protection of civilians, especially women and girls, must be guaranteed.

He added: “We need to locate unexploded ordnance to reduce this risk to civilians, especially when they return to their areas of origin.”.

The UN official identified ten things in order to be able to implement the plan and get aid to those who need it, as follows:

• Continuous entry of at least 1.9 million liters of fuel per week.
• Resume cooking gas input.
• Relief supplies arrive through multiple corridors.
• Providing more working crossings. This means ensuring that there are additional (electronic) scanning devices so that UN convoys and trucks can move more quickly to where they are needed most.
• Security guarantees for those crossings.
• Rehabilitation of basic infrastructure.
• Protection of humanitarian workers.
• Facilitating access for NGOs, including ensuring that their registration is not cancelled.
• Rapid and unhindered delivery of humanitarian relief to civilians in need wherever they are in the Gaza Strip.
• Providing adequate financing. Currently, only 28% of the $4 billion required for the 2025 Flash Appeal for the occupied Palestinian territory is funded.

The emergency relief coordinator stressed the need “We act now. We will act now.”For the tens of thousands of Palestinians and Israelis who lost their lives over two years, for our humanitarian “colleagues” who died trying to save lives, for those who long for food, medicine, shelter, security and to be reunited with their families and loved ones, and for those who can enjoy a peaceful future.