“Supplies on the market are running out while the humanitarian aid coming into the Gaza Strip on trucks from Egypt is insufficient,” White said. “The needs of the communities are immense, if only for basic survival, while the aid we receive is meager and inconsistent.”
White said that to date just over 80 trucks of aid crossed into Gaza in a single week.
“The current system of convoys is geared to fail,” White claimed, calling the lack of trucks, slow process, and other difficulties “a recipe for a failed system.”
“We call for a regular and steady flow line of humanitarian supplies into the Gaza Strip to respond to the needs especially as tensions and frustrations grow,” White told the U.N. news service.
Samer Abdeljaber, a representative with the U.N. World Food Program, likewise called for a “humanitarian pause” in the conflict so that aid workers could bring critically needed supplies to civilians.
Aid workers need “to be able to reach the people in need with food, water and basic necessities safely and effectively,” Abdeljaber said in the release. “Much more access is urgently needed, and the trickle of supplies needs to become a flow.”