(RNS) — With President Trump announcing “the war is over” on Monday (Oct. 13) and Israel and Hamas trading hostages for Palestinian prisoners, aid from the United Nations and faith-based agencies began to flow into the Gaza Strip, with hopes of stemming a humanitarian disaster.
Trump’s 20-point Gaza ceasefire plan names the United Nations, the Red Crescent and other international institutions as the entities responsible to deliver aid to Palestinians who are in the grips of a profound humanitarian crisis. It does not cite the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private entity created by the U.S. and Israel to circumvent the United Nations, which the latter alleged was allowing Hamas to steal aid.
Over the past 36 hours, the United Nations, which has seen its agencies hampered or outright banned by Israel during the two-year war, resumed its work in Gaza.
On Monday, the United Nation’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that “for the first time since March, cooking gas entered the Strip” and that frozen meat, fresh fruit, flour and medicines also crossed into Gaza throughout the day.
Israel broke an earlier ceasefire agreement in mid-March, leading to an 11-week halt of all humanitarian relief entering Gaza. Since then the Israeli government has been allowing a small amount of aid into Gaza but has been unable to stamp out spreading starvation.
Tom Fletcher, undersecretary-general for the U.N’s …