Despite some progress in delivering food to Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, the enclave – ravaged by Israeli bombardment and racked by hunger – remains in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, the United Nations has said.The UN and its partners have been able to get 37,000 metric tonnes of aid, mostly food, into Gaza since the October 10 ceasefire, but much more is needed, UN spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters on Friday.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list“Despite significant progress on the humanitarian scale-up, people’s urgent needs are still immense, with impediments not being lifted quickly enough since the ceasefire,” Haq said, citing reports from the UN’s humanitarian service, OCHA.Haq was critical that entry of humanitarian supplies into Gaza continues to be limited to only two crossings – the al-Karara (also known as Kissufim) and Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossings.There is no direct access to northern Gaza from Israel or to southern Gaza from Egypt, while NGO staff are being denied access, he said.Earlier this week, the UN said it had distributed food parcels to one million people in Gaza since the ceasefire, but warned it was still in a race to save lives.The UN’s World Food Programme stressed all crossing points into the Gaza Strip should be opened to flood the famine-hit territory with aid, adding that no reason was given for why the northern crossi …
