WASHINGTON: A UN official who took part in a humanitarian aid convoy to northern Gaza said on Sunday aid groups were on track to deliver the biggest shipment in over a month, describing thin, gaunt residents slaking their thirst as soon as water arrived.

“People are so desperate and you can see in adults’ eyes they haven’t eaten, you can see the children are getting thinner,” the UN children’s agency’s James Elder said by video link from southern Gaza after returning from Gaza City.

“There’s just this immense relief. Literally people as they get water start drinking the water immediately,” he said. “They’re thirsty. They’ve been thirsty for days.” Unicef’s Elder took part in a five-truck convoy on Sunday alongside other UN agencies delivering high-energy biscuits, vitamin tablets for children as well as medical kits.

A dispute over aid flows to the north of the Israeli-besieged enclave temporarily held up a deal to free captives on Saturday.

The deliveries were made to hospitals where rations were controlled, Elder said. He described seeing children, often with multiple injuries including burns and shrapnel wounds, lying in hospital beds in a state of shock. “They look like they’d been broken and then badly put back together,” he said.

Even as the aid deliveries flowed north, Elder said he saw hundreds of Gazans heading in the other direction, fearing the renewal of Israeli bombardments if the four-day truce is not prolonged.

“People are so terrified that this pause won’t be continued … I saw grandmothers carrying children, children pushing grandmothers in wheelchairs through the dust,” he said.

OCHA said they welcome the release of more prisoners today and renew our call for the immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners.

“And we hope the release of more Palestinian detainees brings relief to their families and loved ones.”

The United Nations on Saturday said 61 trucks carrying medical supplies, food and water had delivered their payloads in northern Gaza, as a pause in the Israeli aggression allows aid to enter the besieged coastal territory.

Another 200 trucks had been dispatched to the Gaza Strip from Nitzana, Israel, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement, with 187 of them having made it past the border by the early evening local time.

Eleven ambulances, three coaches and a flatbed were delivered to Al-Shifa hospital, which had seen heavy strikes in recent days, “to assist with evacuations,” the statement said.

“The longer the pause lasts, the more aid humanitarian agencies will be able to send in and across Gaza,” it added, thanking the Palestinian and Egyptian Red Crescent groups.

The day prior, when a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas began in order to facilitate the prisoner swap, a total of 137 trucks had delivered aid in Gaza, according to the UN.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2023