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Palestinians in northern Gaza on Saturday: People receive water, medicine and medical equipment

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STRINGER / REUTERS

According to the UN, 61 trucks have also arrived in the north of the coastal strip, which was fiercely contested until the ceasefire, during the transport of relief supplies to Gaza. It is the largest such shipment to the northern Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war between the Islamist Hamas and Israel.

The Palestinian Red Crescent successfully drove the trucks there, the aid organization announced on Saturday evening. At four distribution points in the north, people will receive water, medicines and medical equipment, among other things.

Thousands of litres of diesel and four gas tanks for cooking

On Saturday, a total of 187 trucks with relief supplies had arrived in the Gaza Strip by the evening, the UN emergency relief office OCHA announced on Sunday night. Initially, the entry of 200 trucks was planned for Saturday. However, because the goods are carefully checked beforehand, the entry is sometimes delayed. On Saturday, 129,000 liters of diesel and four tanks of gas for cooking were also delivered to Gaza, OCHA said.

Sunday was the third day after the ceasefire between Israel and the Islamist Hamas came into force. In addition to an exchange of hostages for prisoners, the agreement also provides for hundreds of trucks with food, medical supplies and fuel to enter Gaza, according to media reports. Before the war, around 500 trucks carrying humanitarian supplies drove into the Israeli-sealed area every day.

Due to a dispute over aid deliveries to the north, the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners was delayed by a few hours on Saturday. Hamas temporarily halted the handover, accusing Israel of violating the agreement. Israel rejected this.

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The longer the pause in the fighting lasts, the more aid humanitarian organizations will be able to send, the UN Palestinian Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said on Sunday. A spokeswoman had recently said that UNRWA wanted to use the ceasefire to reach as many people as possible in the Gaza Strip. An estimated 1.7 million people have been displaced by the fighting.

Because the nights in the Gaza Strip are slowly getting colder, there is also a great need for materials that people can use to keep warm. This includes mattresses and blankets, materials to seal damaged homes, and winterized tents so people can protect themselves from cold weather conditions. So far, helpers have only distributed such sets for sleeping, cooking or washing, as well as tents, in the south because, according to OCHA, there is no safe access to the heavily contested north.

slü/dpa