The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory’s (UN OCHA oPt) November 28 update came amid a Qatar-Egypt brokered humanitarian pause in Gaza.

In a November 28 update, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OCHA oPt) said that although the Qatar-Egypt brokered ceasefire has quelled Israel’s onslaught of Gaza, enabling humanitarian aid safe entry into the besieged territory, the situation is “still dire.”

“Despite an increase in supplies entering Gaza since the pause began, the volume of incoming commodities is insufficient to meet the extensive needs,” the update said.

UN’s Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also touched on aid into Gaza during a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East..

“The level of aid to Palestinians in Gaza remains completely inadequate to meet the huge needs of more than two million people,” Guterres said on Wednesday. 

The OCHA oPt update also pointed towards “ongoing challenges and constraints” for aid missions, especially in the occupied West Bank. 

Since October 7, 67% of Palestinian casualties in the occupied West Bank occurred during Israeli search-and-arrest operations in Jenin and Tulkarm. The office further noted an increase in settler violence against Palestinians and their property.

“In nearly half of all incidents, Israeli forces were either accompanying or actively supporting the attackers,” the update said of the latest spate of settler aggression.

OCHA oPt also said that Israeli forces blocked ambulance services, which prevented them from tending to injured Palestinians in the Jenin Refugee Camp. 

In Gaza, the OCHA oPt update said that a Palestine Red Cross Society aid convoy transporting food, medical supplies, water, and non-food items reached the North and South of Wadi Gaza on November 28. The vast majority of Palestine’s internally displaced persons are staying in the south of Gaza. 

According to Oxfam’s Humanitarian Director, Marta Valdez Garcia, aid efforts to Gaza amid the temporary truce will go to waste if the international community does not push for an indefinite ceasefire.

In a November 22 press release, Garcia said that the temporary truce offers relief that is “not equal to the size of suffering and destruction and ultimately with no sustainability.”

Garcia added: “This is a band-aid that will be ripped off a bleeding wound.”

The current Qatar and Egypt-mediated humanitarian pause initially came into effect on Friday at 7:00 AM Gaza local time on November 24 for four days, before it was extended for two additional days on Monday.

Today, Qatar’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a communique that the Israeli and Palestinian sides agreed to an extension to the humanitarian pause for an additional day.

In a Qatar News Agency article also released today, the Minister of Foreign Affairs official spokesman, Dr Majed bin Mohammed Al Ansari, told the news outlet that “intensive efforts continue with the aim of reaching a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.”