UN:Israel´s daily 3-hour truces in Gaza good first step, but not nearly enough

Source: Xinhua | 01-08-2009 08:24

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- The daily three-hour pause that Israel began on Wednesday on the 12th day of its Gaza offensive against Hamas was a good first step, but totally insufficient for the United Nations to aid the 1.5 million civilians living in "increasingly appalling" conditions, senior UN officials warned.

Two Israeli soldiers rest beside the tank in the Gaza Strip  Jan.6, 2009. The Israeli army has said that it would hold  fire in the Gaza Strip for three hours every day from Jan.7  to allow local residents to prepare basic supplies. (Xinhua/Tsafrir Abayov)

There were credible reports that 680 people had been killed so far and over 3,000 wounded, the officials said.

They also noted that the outline of a way out of the crisis, which started on Dec. 27 with Israeli airstrikes on Gaza with the stated aim of stopping Hamas rocket attacks against Israel, was emerging with moves in the UN Security Council, ceasefire plans proposed by Egypt and France, and continuing diplomatic efforts by UN Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.

"This (the pause) is potentially a positive step but because we did not have enough warning and because there was a lack of clarity about what this was going to mean, it was very hard for us to make significant use of it, certainly today," UN Under-Secretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes told a news conference here, noting that it was still necessary to move through checkpoints.

"I hope we will be able to use such pauses more in the future if it's clear that they're going to be at a fixed time, if it's clear they're going to be respected and Gaza-wide ... (But) three hours a day is simply totally insufficient for us to be able to do that (get food and supplies to all who need help), which is why it cannot be any kind of substitute for a full end to the hostilities which would allow us to really gear up our humanitarian operation," he said.