150,000 Tents Stuck Outside Gaza as UN Demands Israeli Approval
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MENAFNUN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters at a briefing that the total includes 117,000 tents from the Egyptian Relief Committee in El Arish.
Asked what it would take to move the shelters in, Haq said: “Ultimately, we need the Israeli authorities to cooperate with giving the permissions so that we can bring those tents in.”
Funding for transport has been an obstacle in other cases, he said, but not this one. “Some of the problems have to do with money for transport, but in this case, this is an issue of the needed permissions, and we need to get this in,” he said.
How fast the tents could reach families once approval comes would depend on “how much access we have to the crossing points”, Haq said, as well as how quickly the entry procedure moves.
“But obviously, they’re just on the other side, and we’re ready to bring them in as soon as we get the permissions,” he said.
WAITING FOR A NEW GOVERNMENT “NOT AN ACCEPTABLE EXCUSE”
Separately, UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher rejected the idea that essential winter supplies should wait for a new Israeli government to form, calling it “not an acceptable excuse” for the delays.
“Foreign Ministers and partners have assured me of support, but also repeatedly said that progress would be hard until after Israeli elections. Now we’re told to wait for the formation of a government,” he said in a statement. “In case anyone has any doubt about international humanitarian law: this is not an acceptable excuse, as the international community and Board of Peace have made clear.”
Fletcher said the UN has laid out a plan for the aid it needs to deliver. It covers durable shelter, warm clothes, blankets, bedding and safe heating solutions, along with generators, fuel, engine oil, spare parts, and equipment to pump out water, remove debris and clear explosive ordnance.
“No more delay. Open all the crossings, not just one. Let our vital NGO partners work. Allow the commercial markets to function. Stop this collective punishment. Fund the plan. End this predictable, preventable suffering. The world is not powerless here,” he said.
SEWAGE THREAT AFTER WEEKEND FLOODS
Citing UNICEF, Haq said weekend flooding is deepening a sanitation crisis already driven by the war.
“No wastewater treatment plant in Gaza is currently operational,” he said.
In Gaza City, rainwater mixed with sewage is at risk of overflowing from the Sheikh Radwan stormwater basin, where just two of six pumps still work, Haq said. UNICEF has been waiting more than a year for Israeli approval to bring in the equipment needed to repair the facility.
“Humanitarian funding and Israeli approvals are urgently needed so that enough supplies and machinery can be brought into Gaza,” he added.
Since October 2023, Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 74,600 Palestinians and injured nearly 176,000, most of them women and children, and has destroyed 90% of the territory’s infrastructure.
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