The four-day ceasefire is nowhere near enough for an effective humanitarian response, the communications adviser for the Norwegian Refugee Council has told Sky News.
While the group “welcomed the opportunity” to scale up its activities and deliver more aid to those in need, Shaina Low said the pause was “really not enough” to meet the needs of civilians in Gaza after seven weeks of bombardment.
“We desperately need these four days to turn into a long-term, sustainable ceasefire,” she said.
“The people of Gaza cannot take it any longer.”
Ms Low said that due to challenges safely accessing communities over the past seven weeks, their team in Gaza will spend a large portion of the next 24 to 48 hours trying to reach those areas and assess where help is needed most.
She said civilians need everything from food and clean water to resources to repair damaged homes.
“As winter is quickly approaching we need mattresses, we need blankets… hygiene kits, shampoo, soap, things that they need in order to take care of themselves and live in dignity,” she said.
She added that fuel is also “desperately” needed to operate generators in hospitals, run desalination plants to clean water, for sewage treatment and to operate trucks.
Leave a Reply