He said that the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and other partners were present on the trip.
“The team said the displaced people urgently need food, water, health care and protection,” Mr Dujarric said during his daily briefing From New York.
“They also saw how the lack of fuel undermines aid agencies’ efforts to provide essential services to displaced families.”
Mr Dujarric noted that humanitarian organisations continue to struggle to provide aid due to access restrictions and “lack of public order.”
He also said that hospitals, water treatment plants and other facilities are functioning with generators, as Gaza has been without power since October.
Sanitary articles for women
Louise Waterridge, senior communications officer at UNRWA, was on the mission trips and said UN News the scenes she saw were ‘apocalyptic’.
Ms Wateridge said meetings with women-led groups revealed an “urgent need for sanitary kits”.
The communications officer said she spoke to a woman who had a C-section five months ago, “and was forced to leave the hospital three hours later because they needed the space.”
“She had no hygiene kits, no sanitary items after this very, very extensive operation, and also had two twin girls to look after, who are now four months old,” Mrs Wateridge said. UN NewS.
Stuck in the North
She estimates that about 300,000 people live in northern Gaza.
Some families try to travel south but have difficulty crossing borders, while others stay in the north because they fear they will die there, despite their location, she said.
“People in the north have been stuck in the north for months. It is only recently that families have been allowed to move from the north to the south,” Ms Wateridge said.
Robust system
She said UN News that UNRWA has a ‘robust system’ in place for citizens to communicate their needs to a specific point of contact.
“We can’t always meet the needs, depending on the amount of aid that we’ve actually received in Gaza,” she said. “But (several) UN partners… are working together to get these supplies to these people.”
Ms Wateridge said UNRWA and other UN partners must do everything they can to ensure supplies enter the Gaza Strip. She also said partners must ensure unrestricted access to various areas in Gaza City to ensure supplies are delivered to different communities.