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GAZA: A senior UNICEF official has warned that the quality of relief aid entering Gaza is as vital as its quantity, stressing the need for unrestricted access to essential supplies to meet the enclave’s mounting humanitarian needs.

Hamish Young, UNICEF’s senior emergency coordinator, who was speaking to Anadolu Agency, said: “Palestinians in Gaza need tents, plastic sheeting, and clean drinking water.”

He highlighted the urgent need for fuel and equipment necessary for water production and distribution, as well as pipes to repair wells and desalination plants.

Speaking from the road leading to the Kissufim crossing, east of Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, Young said he and his team were waiting for permission to allow in much-needed aid.

“We have 50 trucks waiting for permission to move and bring in medical supplies and hygiene items essential to save children's lives,” he said.

According to UNICEF, Israel has allowed 653 aid trucks into Gaza since the ceasefire took effect on Oct. 10. This number is far fewer than the 600 trucks per day agreed under the current arrangements.

On Sunday, 173 trucks were permitted to enter, including three carrying cooking gas and six with fuel. No aid entered on Monday or Tuesday, while 480 trucks were allowed through on Wednesday.

Describing conditions in Gaza as “catastrophic,” Young said all hospitals had been either destroyed or severely damaged, while residents faced severe shortages of food and shelter.

He warned that UNICEF urgently needed a “significant amount of food supplies” to address the effects of famine in northern Gaza, adding: “There is an urgent need to make every effort to bring in all these supplies I'm talking about.”

Young continued: “Children in Gaza are in dire need of this support, and we shouldn't sit and wait for these supplies.”

He called for the daily entry of “600 trucks loaded with supplies, including a full range of materials from the private sector and commercial suppliers, in addition to vital humanitarian aid provided by UNICEF, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Population Fund, and the World Health Organization.”

Young added that Gaza also needed around 50 trucks of fuel each day, including cooking gas, which he described as “critical for the population of Gaza,” adding that aid organizations needed freedom of movement throughout Gaza “so that we can deliver supplies to the most vulnerable children, and to their mothers and the families who care for them.”

DUBAI: A ship caught fire Saturday in the Gulf of Aden off Yemen after being struck by a projectile, the British military said, with one report suggesting its crew was preparing to abandon the vessel.
The incident comes as Yemen’s Houthi militants have been attacking ships through the Red Sea corridor. However, the militants did not immediately claim the attack, though it can take them hours or even days to do so.
The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center issued an alert about the vessel, describing the incident as taking place some 210 kilometers (130 miles) east of Aden.
“A vessel has been hit by an unknown projectile, resulting with a fire,” the UKMTO said. “Authorities are investigating.”

The maritime security firm Ambrey described the ship as a Cameroon-flagged tanker that was “en route from Sohar, Oman, to Djibouti.” It said radio traffic suggested the crew was preparing to abandon ship and a search-and-rescue effort was underway.
Details offered about the ship appeared to correspond to the Falcon, a Cameroon-flagged tanker that carries liquefied petroleum gas. The Falcon previously had been identified by United Against Nuclear Iran, a New York-based pressure group, as operating allegedly in an Iranian “ghost fleet” of ships moving their oil products in the high seas despite international sanctions. The ship’s owners and operators, listed as being in India, could not be immediately reached for comment.
The Houthis have gained international prominence during the Israel-Hamas war over their attacks on shipping and Israel, which they said were aimed at forcing Israel to stop fighting. Since the ceasefire began on Oct. 10, no attacks have been claimed by the militant group.
The Houthi campaign against shipping has killed at least nine mariners and seen four ships sunk. It upended shipping in the Red Sea, through which about $1 trillion of goods passed each year before the war. The militants’ most recent attack hit the Dutch-flagged cargo ship Minervagracht on Sept. 29, killing one crew member on board and wounding another.
Meanwhile, the Houthis have increasingly threatened ����ֱ�� and taken dozens of workers at United Nations agencies and other aid groups as prisoners, alleging without evidence they were spies — something fiercely denied by the world body and others.