United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Olga Cherevko has said there has to be a “meaningful lifting of the blockade”.

Responding to a question about the Madleen ship’s impact in addressing the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, She said: “What is happening right now is a very limited number of aid shipments being allowed in [by Israel], and this aid is woefully insignificant compared to the people’s needs on the ground,” she told Al Jazeera from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.

Cherevko stressed that only comprehensive changes would improve conditions for Gaza’s population.

“The only way to address these needs and to alleviate the suffering of the people is through an unencumbered, unfettered, and unrestricted flow of aid into Gaza, and also an enabling environment for us to be able to pick up these supplies, to deliver them to the distribution points, to deliver them directly to families and really empower the society to rebuild their lives in some way,” she added.