Gaza crisis: Four-day truce comes into force

A scheduled four-day truce in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas came into effect Friday morning at 7 a.m. local time (5 a.m. GMT). According to Qatari officials, who brokered the deal, the truce includes a comprehensive cease-fire in north and south Gaza. According to the deal, which was reportedly facilitated by Egypt and the United States, 50 women and children, who were abducted from Israel by Hamas on October 7, are to be released in exchange for Palestinian women and minors held in Israeli prisons.

Under the current deal, Israel has to pause its attacks on Gaza for four days and Hamas will also pause its attacks on Israel. Israeli officials said the 96-hour humanitarian pause in fighting would be extended an extra day for every ten additional hostages freed by Hamas.

More than a month ago, the humanitarian situation of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip drastically deteriorated following attacks by the Israeli military due to atrocities committed by Palestinian armed groups in Israel. The brutal violence and the complete blockade imposed on Gaza by the Israeli government has led to a humanitarian catastrophe for the people of the tiny enclave.

Israeli strikes from air, land and sea reportedly intensified on Thursday ahead of the cease-fire across most of Gaza. However, the truce starting Friday was largely observed by both sides, according to media reports.

United Nations officials expressed their hope Friday that the short humanitarian pause will be respected and lead to a longer “actual humanitarian ceasefire”.

“We hope the agreement… will bring respite to the people of Gaza and Israel and some relief to the hostages and detainees who will be released, and to their families,” said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The halt in fighting promises some relief for Gaza's 2.3 million population, which has endured weeks of Israeli bombardment from the air, land and sea. Attacks by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have killed more than 14,800 Palestinians and wounded more than 36,000 others within weeks. While two thirds of the fatalities are reportedly children and women, the dead include more than 6,000 children and at least 4,000 women.

Among those killed are at least 108 UN staff, 207 health workers and 65 journalists. More than 6,500 people - including 4,400 children - have been reported missing and may be still trapped dead or alive under the rubble.

On Monday, UN chief António Guterres said the number of civilians killed in Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip has been “unparalleled and unprecedented” compared to any other conflict since he took office six years ago.

At least 60 percent of all housing units in the Gaza Strip, a densely populated area, have been either destroyed or damaged since the start of the hostilities. This includes more than 45,000 housing units destroyed and more than 233,000 damaged. Entire residential neighborhoods have been razed to the ground.

Between October 21 and November 21, around 1,400 truckloads of humanitarian supplies have entered Gaza through the Egyptian border, compared to a monthly average of nearly 10,000 truckloads of commercial and humanitarian commodities entering Gaza prior to the conflict.

OCHA spokesperson Laerke confirmed Friday that trucks with humanitarian supplies were continuing to cross into Gaza through the Rafah crossing. The previous day, he noted, 68,383 liters of fuel and 80 trucks carrying humanitarian supplies entered Gaza from Egypt.

"Today’s humanitarian pause went into effect with relative calm, allowing truckloads of aid to go into Gaza. These developments are a significant humanitarian breakthrough that we need to build on," Tor Wennesland, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, said today.

“More assistance and supplies must enter the Strip safely and continuously to alleviate the immense suffering of civilians,” he added.

Wennesland also urged the warring parties “to exhaust every effort to achieve an extended humanitarian ceasefire and pursue a more peaceful future”.

The UN has emphasized that civilians in Gaza cannot depend on humanitarian aid alone. The entry of commercial goods needed to resume, especially through the Kerem Shalom Crossing, which had the capacity for it, the Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Lynn Hastings, said.

Laerke emphasized the importance of getting fuel in, which was necessary to operate the machinery needed to get people out from the rubble. He explained that the fuel was distributed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

UN Secretary-General Guterres has welcomed the humanitarian pause. He said Wednesday that the United Nations would mobilize all its capacities to support the implementation of the agreement and maximize its positive impact on the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

On Thursday, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini witnessed some of the “unspeakable suffering of people” in the Gaza Strip since the war began.

“Since my first visit two weeks ago, the humanitarian situation has already become far worse. Displacement continues.  UNRWA now hosts more than 1 million people in its schools and premises across the Gaza Strip”, he said following his second visit to Gaza.

Over 1.7 million people – more than three quarters of the total population of Gaza - have been displaced due to the attacks by the Israeli military. More than 1 million civilians are sheltering in 156 UNRWA installations in increasingly dire conditions. UNRWA shelters are accommodating far more people than their intended capacity.

Lazzarini renewed his urgent calls for a long-standing humanitarian ceasefire.

“As we all anticipate the beginning of the much-awaited pause, I reiterate my call for a long-standing humanitarian ceasefire.  People are exhausted and are losing hope in humanity. They need respite, they deserve to sleep without being anxious about whether they will make it through the night. This is the bare minimum anyone should be able to have,” he said.

Lazzarini added, UNRWA was committed to continue bringing assistance to people in need, and ready to receive more than 150 trucks of aid per day without interruption.

“The pause is also an opportunity to reach people in need, including in the north, and to start repairing civilian infrastructure.”

The UN has repeatedly stressed that humanitarian agencies need access all over the Gaza Strip, including in the north, where needs are the largest.  The north has long been cut off from the south of the enclave and from aid by Israeli military operations, in violation of international humanitarian law.

"It is time to scrap the bureaucratic hurdles and limits imposed on the humanitarian community so that we expand and speed up the delivery of desperately needed humanitarian assistance to more than 2 million people," the UNRWA Commissioner-General said.

On October 7, Palestinian armed groups in Gaza, including fighters from the militant Hamas group, launched thousands of rockets toward Israel and breached through a perimeter fence of Gaza at multiple locations. Members of armed groups entered into Israeli towns, communities, and military facilities near the Gaza Strip, killing and capturing Israeli forces and civilians.

More than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals, most of them civilians, were reportedly killed and more than 5,400 injured, most of them on October 7. Some 235 people, including Israelis and foreign nationals, were held hostage in Gaza, before today’s release of hostages started.