UNITED NATIONS, Nov 10 (APP): About 5,000 trucks owned by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinians, that are carrying humanitarian aid remain blocked from entering Gaza, a senior UN official said on Monday, underscoring the severe difficulties of delivering relief to the war-shattered enclave.
UNRWA’s senior deputy director for Gaza operations, John Whyte, said Israel is refusing to allow the agency’s trucks into the besieged strip.
“They just won’t let anything that’s owned by UNRWA go in,” he said, adding that Israel is demanding the removal of UNRWA branding and the transfer of supplies to other relief organizations before entry is permitted.
“So they’re requiring us to hand our supplies over to other agencies, who then bring them in. But we also have to take the UNRWA logo off everything, which causes us a lot of hassle.”
Last year, Israel banned UNRWA. Since the ban came into effect in January, the UN agency has not been able to operate in the Israeli-occupied territories.
There are still 12,000 UNRWA workers operating in Gaza, but they’ve been cut off from their colleagues working outside the strip, the UNRWA official added.
“Now, because our staff are in there, they will continue to operate and deliver services, but obviously we are hampered because our supplies are not able to come in,” Whyte said.