As focus switched to reconstructing the enclave destroyed during 15 months of intense Israeli shelling, United Nations officials say more than 2,400 assistance vehicles have entered the Gaza Strip since the truce agreement between Israel and Hamastook.
Aid supplies to the blockaded enclave were extremely limited during the battle.
Video from Reuters showed trucks carrying humanitarian aid driving into Rafah, in southern Gaza, as the truce began its fourth day on Wednesday. In one, Palestinians were seen rushing to retrieve fallen purple plastic assistance bags as they chased the trucks down the city’s rutted roadways. In another, with the wreckage of wrecked houses on each side, they were observed scooping up disposable water bottles from the ground.
Schools and hospitals are among the roughly 60% of Gaza’s infrastructure that has been damaged, according to earlier U.N. estimates. During the battle, Israel came under international condemnation for severely restricting the delivery of gasoline and aid.
According to local health professionals, Israeli bombing during the conflict has killed over 47,000 people. According to the United Nations, about 1.9 million Palestinians, or 90% of Gaza’s population, have been driven from their homes and are now living in tent camps and other temporary shelters.
Israeli officials are required to permit at least 600 truckloads of supplies, including 50 that transport gasoline, to enter Gaza every day for the first six weeks of the ceasefire agreement. The northern part of Gaza, where experts have warned of impending hunger, would receive half of those trucks.
There haven’t been any noticeable problems with law and order in securing the flow of supplies into the besieged area thus far, a senior U.N. official told Reuters on Wednesday. During the conflict, which was sparked by the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack by Hamas that claimed 1,200 lives and resulted in the capture of about 250 more, looters and criminal gangs have raided relief vehicles.
According to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the relief would cover medical treatment and food assistance, including refilling hospitals, rebuilding shelters and water networks, reconciling families, and opening bakeries.
NBC News recorded uniformed officers from the Hamas military wing, al-Qassam Brigades, stationed around the streets in the al-Dahra area of central Khan Younis on Monday to monitor vehicles and guarantee the safe delivery of assistance into the city.
A 40-year-old policeman named Abdul Wahab Abdul Raouf Samour was assigned to patrol the streets and help with traffic in the enclave.
He told NBC News’ team on Monday that Palestinian officials had directed personnel in the field to make sure security measures were in place to stop looting. “We were informed by the Interior Ministry to wear military uniforms and military suits and head directly to work,” he said.
“As you see, we are facilitating the traffic movement for the cities, and, God willing, we hope to serve our people more than this,” he stated.
NBC News footage from the enclave showed streets lined with the broken remains of houses and businesses, and structures shrouded in ash. Additional drone footage showed the destruction of Gaza’s cities both before and after the war’s 15-month duration.
Israeli bombings in Khan Younis continued Monday, however, and some Palestinians in Gaza trying to rebuild their lives were not spared even by the pledge of a ceasefire.
Israeli missiles killed four security officers and struck a van carrying security personnel when 35-year-old Ahmed Qudra left his house to buy chicken wings for his seven children from the market. Three of Qudra’s children were also killed in the attack, while two more were injured.
We thought the ceasefire began at 8:30, so we went to bed. What could have alerted us to the change? How could we have predicted that our joy would give way to destruction? Qudra’s wife, Hanan, spoke tearfully to the ground crew of NBC News.
We requested that he bring us chicken wings on Friday. “I will,” he said. After witnessing the murder of his father and brothers, 12-year-old son Adel declared, “Now he’s gone.”