A United Nations official in Gaza has warned that the reconstruction process in the stricken Palestinian territory will “take a lot of time” despite promises of increased humanitarian aid.

Sam Rose, acting director of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), said: “We are not just talking about food, health care, buildings, roads, infrastructure. We also have individuals, families and communities that need to rebuild. “Gaza,” told the BBC.

A ceasefire and hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas came into effect on Sunday. The United Nations says at least 1,545 aid trucks have entered Gaza.

Trucks brought much-needed food, tents, blankets, mattresses and winter clothing that had been stranded on the outskirts of Gaza for months.

According to reports, the ceasefire agreement calls for 600 aid trucks (including 50 carrying fuel) to be allowed into Gaza every day during the first phase of six weeks, during which Hamas should release 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of several Israeli prisoners. Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

“We expect that the amount of aid we receive will increase significantly and, of course, it will be much easier for us to go and collect it because many of the problems we have faced so far in the war will disappear when the fighting stops,” Mr Ross said.

“We no longer travel through active conflict zones. We no longer have to coordinate all these operations with the Israeli authorities,” he added. “We’re not facing any major problems today… with robberies and crime.”

But he also stressed that “we must move away from seeing the needs of the people of Gaza as a function of the amount of aid.”

“Everyone in Gaza is traumatized by what happened. Everyone has lost something. Most of the houses are now destroyed, most of the roads are destroyed,” he added. “This is going to be a long recovery and rebuilding process.”

Meanwhile, WHO regional director Hanan Balkhy said it had developed a 60-day plan to get Gaza’s health system back up and running to meet the population’s emergency needs and prioritize Caring for thousands of people suffering life-threatening injuries.

The plan includes repairing Gaza’s hospitals (half of which are out of service and others operating only partially), setting up makeshift clinics in the worst-hit areas, addressing malnutrition and containing disease outbreaks.

On Sunday night, United Nations humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher warned that the humanitarian needs of Palestinians in Gaza were “alarming.”

U.N. officials have previously blamed Israel’s military restrictions on aid deliveries, hostilities and disruptions to law and order for the humanitarian crisis.

Israel insists there are no limits on the amount of aid sent to and across Gaza and accuses U.N. agencies of failing to distribute supplies. It also accuses Hamas of stealing aid, which the group denies.

The Israeli military launched an operation to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, which left approximately 1,200 people dead and 251 people taken hostage. Israel says 91 hostages remain in custody.

Since then, more than 47,000 people have been killed and 111,000 injured in Gaza, according to the Hamas-governed Gaza Health Ministry.

Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have also been displaced multiple times, an estimated 60% of buildings have been damaged or destroyed, health care, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed, and there are severe shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter.

In October, the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) estimated that 1.84 million people in Gaza were experiencing severe acute food insecurity, with 133,000 facing catastrophic levels that could lead to starvation and death.

The following month, the IPC committee warned that famine was likely to be “imminent” in some areas of northern Gaza.

Before the ceasefire, the United Nations said the besieged northern towns of Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun had been largely cut off since the Israeli military launched a ground offensive in October aimed at preventing a resurgence of Hamas. food aid.

A Palestinian woman who returned to her destroyed home in northern Gaza on Monday after a ceasefire came into effect expressed shock at what she saw as Israeli soldiers retreated.

Manal Abu al-Dragham told BBC Arabic program Gaza Today: “The whole place looks like it has been struck by an earthquake because of the severity of the aggression.”

“No matter how much it costs, I will pitch my tent in the north… I don’t want to leave my land again.”

Mr. Ross said his UNRWA team in southern Gaza has not yet been able to access northern Gaza because the Israeli military has not yet opened a route through the east-west Nezarim corridor.

But he said UNRWA, Gaza’s largest humanitarian organization, had local networks and personnel who could help if given access.

However, UNRWA is facing a looming ban from Israel, which may prevent it from operating in Gaza.

Two laws passed by the Knesset, set to take effect next week, will ban the agency from operating in Israel and prevent Israeli state institutions from communicating with it.

Israel accuses UNRWA of complicity with Hamas and says 18 of its staff were involved in the October 7 attack. The agency has fired nine staff members the U.N. investigation found may have been involved and insists it is committed to neutrality.

The United Nations said UNRWA was irreplaceable in Gaza, while the agency’s commissioner-general, Filippo Lazzarini, announced that thousands of its Palestinian staff in Gaza would “remain in place” if the Israeli government implemented the two laws. come down and do their duty,” even though the Israeli government would “incur considerable personal risk to them.”