UN resumes aid distribution in Gaza

The United Nations will resume aid distribution for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip after receiving security assurances from Israel, the world body said in a statement late Friday. The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) said in a joint statement that the United Nations had received "credible assurances that the security of UN personnel, installations and humanitarian operations would be fully respected." "On this basis, UN staff movements suspended yesterday will resume as soon as possible," the two organizations said. [...] Meanwhile, World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director Josette Sheeran visited the town of Rafah on the Egyptian border with Gaza to get first-hand information on the humanitarian challenges there. She pledged to provide food aid to some 360,000 of the non-refugee population in Gaza, up from 250,000 at present. Sheeran also has sent a senior WFP team to Jerusalem to urge the Israeli authorities to grant freer humanitarian access to Gaza so that the agency can respond to the immediate food needs. "It's critical that WFP and all humanitarian workers have free and unfettered access to the people of Gaza at this difficult time," she said, adding that food supplies were waiting in warehouses to be distributed to the hungry

UN WFP pays farmers $53m for food

THE World Food Programme (WFP) has began buying food directly from small-holding farmers in Uganda to boost opportunities for poverty eradication. The UN food agency said in a statement yesterday that it bought $53m worth of food locally last year for recipients in Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Eastern DR Congo. The statement said the agency plans to increase the purchases to more than $100m annually in three years. The country director, Stanlake Samkange, said WFP recently started buying food through the warehouse receipt system to increase direct assistance to small-scale farmers and support the Government poverty eradication efforts. “Buying food directly from small-scale farmers, especially at high prices, helps further by improving the quality of life for the poorest people,” Samkange said in the statement.

WFP appeals for rapid expansion of humanitarian access to gaza

"The situation in Gaza is dire with at least 80 per cent of the people needing urgent food assistance," Sheeran said at Rafah, on the Egyptian border with Gaza, where she had travelled to hear at first hand the humanitarian challenges on the ground.

Ceasefire in shreds as war in Gaza rages on

The Gaza conflict raged on overnight after both sides dismissed a UN call for an immediate ceasefire, and Israel indicated it may move its forces deeper into densely populated urban areas. [...] Relations between the Israeli government and the UN and other international bodies continued to deteriorate with starkly contradictory accounts of two incidents involving the deaths of civilians. Food deliveries to Gaza were suspended on Thursday after the UN and the Red Cross accused the Israelis of firing on a relief convoy. And yesterday, the UN high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, called for an independent investigation into reports that Israeli forces herded Palestinians into a house in Gaza and opened fire on the building the next day, killing 30. Ms Pillay said the killings "appear to have all the elements of war crimes ... It cries out for proper investigation". The Israeli military said their investigation showed both claims were false. The UN's food relief agency, the World Food Programme, said that it was becoming increasingly difficult to find food in Gaza, with many people too frightened to leave their homes, and supplies scarce and dwindling.