The Norwegian Refugee Council, one of the largest independent relief organizations operating in Gaza, warned on Thursday that US President Donald Trump’s plan to increase aid to the starving population, as part of a ceasefire agreement, will fail if all relief organizations cannot resume their operations. Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General António Guterres emphasized that real progress on the ceasefire agreement requires removing obstacles to humanitarian aid in Gaza, while Egypt confirmed it will send aid to Gaza after the ceasefire.

Jan Egeland, head of the council, told Reuters in a video interview from Oslo, “The misery and suffering inside Gaza are beyond imagination… the work of some UN agencies and a few NGOs is not enough.” He added, “If this does not happen, Trump’s peace plan will fail… We do not have time for more bureaucratic obstacles.”

The UN Secretary-General commented on the Gaza agreement that “silencing the guns” in the area is not enough to achieve “real progress”; obstacles to delivering humanitarian aid must also be removed. Guterres reiterated his call to all parties to “fully respect” the agreement’s provisions. However, he noted that “turning this ceasefire into real progress requires more than just silencing the guns.” He added, “We need to ensure full, safe, and sustainable access for humanitarian workers, remove administrative difficulties and obstacles, and rebuild the destroyed infrastructure.”

On another note, the UN agency UNRWA confirmed on Thursday that it has food aid for the entire Gaza Strip sufficient for three months. UNRWA affirmed its readiness to deliver aid to the area in quantities sufficient to meet the needs of its population amid the severe humanitarian crisis. UNRWA Director-General Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X that “UNRWA has food, medicine, and other essential supplies for Gaza,” where the UN declared famine. He added, “We have enough to feed all the population for the next three months.” The agency said it still cooperates with about 12,000 staff in Gaza, and Lazzarini stressed that UNRWA teams are “essential to implementing the agreement, especially to provide basic services such as health care and education.”

In a move coinciding with the announcement of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, the 47th batch of Egyptian aid trucks moved from the Rafah crossing towards Gaza. In the early hours of yesterday morning, the outer yard of Rafah crossing witnessed the lining up of this convoy carrying urgent food and relief materials, as part of Egypt’s ongoing efforts to alleviate the humanitarian suffering of more than two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip due to the ongoing Israeli war. A source in the Egyptian Red Crescent explained that the trucks are part of the “Zad Al-Izza convoy from Egypt to Gaza,” carrying large quantities of aid including food baskets, flour, fresh bread, legumes, preserved foods, medicines, personal care items, and tents. (Agencies)