The United Nations has initiated a significant humanitarian effort in the Gaza Strip, marking a critical step forward in addressing the region’s ongoing crisis. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), essential supplies, including cooking gas, have entered Gaza for the first time since March. This development is part of a broader aid initiative that saw the delivery of tents, frozen meat, fresh fruit, flour, and medicines on Sunday. The UN and its partners have also distributed hundreds of thousands of hot meals and bread bundles across both the northern and southern regions of Gaza. OCHA confirmed that Israeli authorities have approved the movement of additional aid, bringing the total cleared pipeline to 190,000 metric tonnes of food, shelter items, medicine, and other essential supplies. UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher emphasized that this is only the beginning of a 60-day plan to expand aid operations, aiming to reach 2.1 million people in need of food assistance and 500,000 requiring nutritional support. The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, mediated by Egypt, Qatar, Turkiye, and the United States, has facilitated these efforts, allowing for a massive scale-up in humanitarian services, including health system restoration, water and sanitation provision, shelter construction, and the reopening of temporary learning spaces for 700,000 school-aged children.