The Government of Egypt has consented to the deployment of a UN technical humanitarian team to provide advice to the Egyptian Red Crescent Society on the delivery of aid to Gaza, according to Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.
The UN team will be based in Al-Arish, which the is approximately 45 kilometres from the Rafah Border Crossing. In his daily briefing, Dujarric said: "Overcrowding in UN facilities in Gaza remains a major concern. Just to give you one example, in the Khan Younis Training Centre, where 22,000 displaced men, women, and children have sought shelter, the space per person is less than 2 square meters, and there is one toilet for 600 people."
He continued: "Our colleagues at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) say that worsening sanitary conditions, along with the lack of privacy and space, pose great risks to the health and safety of people sheltering there."
The Egyptian authorities revealed earlier that it is seeking to increase the amount of aid flowing into Gaza, including fuel, which Israel has thus far refused to allow.
"Any effort to get convoys of ambulances carrying wounded to Rafah crossing must be accompanied by ICRC and UN vehicles to protect them and so they don’t get bombed as happened with the last convoy," the Gaza government said.
Follow the latest news on Google News
