the appeal came as Israeli troops began pulling back from some parts of the Palestinian territory on Friday under a ceasefire deal with Hamas, in the first phase of an initiative by US President Donald Trump to end the two-year-old war.
“The situation is critical. We risk seeing a massive spike in child death, not only neonatal, but also infants, given their immune systems are more compromised than ever before,” said Unicef spokesperson Ricardo Pires. Children’s immunity is low because “they haven’t been eating properly and recently at all for way too long”, he said.
The United Nations plans to ramp up its delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, where some areas are experiencing famine, in the first 60 days of a ceasefire in the enclave, a top UN official said on Thursday. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said they expect about 600 aid trucks to enter Gaza daily.
“Under the ceasefire arrangement, we will have more than 145 community distribution points, in addition to up to 30 bakeries and all of our nutrition sites,” Ross Smith, WFP Director of Emergencies, told Reuters on Friday.
The WFP expects to begin scaling up deliveries early next week, but that would depend on the withdrawal of Israeli forces so that humanitarian safe zones can be expanded. The Israeli military said that aid trucks operated by the UN and “approved” donors would be allowed to enter Gaza.
The trucks will mainly include food, medical equipment, shelter supplies, and fuel and equipment needed to repair water lines and sewage systems. Access to northern Gaza is critical, the WFP said, with up to 400,000 people who have not received assistance for several weeks.
The agency has urged improved scanning and approval of aid convoys to speed truck entry. Unicef said 50,000 children were at risk of acute malnutrition and in need of immediate treatment. Unicef also aims to provide one million blankets for every child in Gaza and hopes to deliver wheelchairs and crutches, which it said had previously been blocked.
Both Unicef and the UN Palestinian refugee relief agency UNRWA said they have yet to receive details on their roles during the ceasefire. UNRWA, which is banned from operating in Israel, has urged the Israeli authorities to allow it to take 6,000 trucks’ worth of aid into Gaza, including enough food to feed the population for three months, from Jordan and Egypt.