Gaza aid appeal from 53 countries presses Israel on crossings

Fifty-three countries and organisations made a Gaza aid appeal on Thursday, urging Israel’s incoming government to allow open access for relief.

The group delivered its call at the United Nations in New York. Britain, Qatar and Jordan led it, and Turkiye also joined.

What the Gaza aid appeal asks for

The signatories want humanitarian aid to enter through every available crossing and land route. They also want humanitarian corridors through Egypt and Jordan to run fully and predictably.

Sarah MacIntosh, Britain’s ambassador to the UN, spoke on behalf of those who backed the Gaza Call to Action on Humanitarian Access and Health. She said the aid had not yet reached the levels that Security Council Resolution 2803 requires.

That resolution endorsed the Board of Peace plan, which the US backed. It calls for deliveries no lower than the levels agreed in January 2025.

MacIntosh said that progress is possible since the ceasefire when political will allows. However, she said curbs on shelter items and other life-saving goods still keep relief groups from operating at the scale they need.

Winter raises the stakes for the Gaza aid appeal

As winter sets in, many people in Gaza have no proper shelter. MacIntosh warned of hypothermia, respiratory infections and waterborne diseases, all of them preventable.

The UN children’s fund puts the number sheltering in tents, improvised huts or damaged buildings at about 1.7 million, out of 2.2 million residents. Rain, cold and collapse threaten all of those.

Close to one million people live where floods could strike. For about 400,000 of them, flooding is extremely likely.

Also, the signatories asked Israel to restore the medical referral route to hospitals in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. They pressed for fast and transparent criminal inquiries into attacks on health and aid workers. In addition, they want senior foreign delegations and reporters to get into Gaza.

The countries promised to fund winter preparations, including shelter, water, sanitation and health supplies.

Fletcher rejects the wait

A day earlier, Tom Fletcher, the UN’s humanitarian chief, attacked the lag in winter deliveries. He said foreign ministers had repeatedly told him that progress would be hard until after Israel’s elections.

Now, he added, officials say aid must wait until a government forms. Fletcher called that an unacceptable excuse under international humanitarian law.

Nasser hospital strike

The appeal came on the same day as another deadly strike. Israel bombed Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, which killed 10 people.

No single strike had killed more people since Israel’s elections last month. The strike hit a building that held surgery wards.

The Israeli army said it targeted a senior Hamas commander and charged the group with planning attacks from the complex. Hamas rejected that.

Meanwhile, the truce from 2025 has mostly quietened the war, yet Israeli strikes carry on at a steady rate. The Gaza Ministry of Health says more than 1,600 Palestinians have died since the truce began.

For now, the Gaza aid appeal puts the next step with Israel’s incoming government. Also, the Gaza aid appeal will show whether crossings open before the harshest winter weeks arrive.