The UN is stepping up its emergency response in Gaza, releasing $11 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to meet urgent needs before winter - a move that underscores both the expanding humanitarian effort and the funding shortfall threatening to stall it.
The allocation, announced on Monday by Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher, will support the immediate scale-up of aid operations across the Gaza Strip, including food, water, healthcare and shelter for civilians affected by two years of conflict.
It follows a $9 million allocation last week to secure fuel supplies for hospitals and essential services, bringing total recent CERF funding for Gaza to $20 million.
The announcement comes as a ceasefire brokered by the United States, Qatar and Egypt continues to hold, alongside the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian detainees, offering what the UN Secretary-General described as "the fragile hope of calm after months of devastation."
Urgent scale up needed
The UN and its partners are rapidly scaling up operations across Gaza as access improves, delivering life-saving assistance in areas that had been cut off for months. However, a massive scale up in funding is needed in the face of overwhelming needs.
Mr. Fletcher warned that without fresh contributions to CERF, critical aid cannot keep flowing to people who need it.
Speaking from Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, ahead of a summit on Gaza, he said the UN humanitarian scale-up is underway amid what he called "a moment of precarious hope" for so many.
"It is a moment of opportunity, but also a moment that calls for determined patience, creativity and sustained generosity," he said.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ( OCHA ), UN teams have now secured Israeli approval for 190,000 metric tonnes of aid, with cooking gas entering Gaza for the first time since March and more food, tents and medical supplies moving in daily.
