Aid chief: Ceasefire deal won't change 'bleak reality of Gazan life

Aid agencies await the impending Gaza ceasefire with bated breath, amid fears that "many years" of support will be required to prevent an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe. 

Kristen Phelps, aid agency World Vision's country director in Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza, told CGTN that Wednesday's ceasefire deal contained only sketchy details of forthcoming humanitarian access.

She said: "Given the level of destruction we've seen we're looking at many, many years (of help required). The situation across the region remains very difficult and a ceasefire is not going to change this bleak reality."

Phelps added: "We see a million children in Gaza experiencing acute hunger, half of them in near famine-like conditions, if not experiencing famine outright."

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday the immediate priority "must be to ease the tremendous suffering" caused by the war.

Guterres described the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave after 15 months of intense Israeli bombardment as "catastrophic."

"The United Nations stands ready to support the implementation of this deal and scale up the delivery of sustained humanitarian relief to the countless Palestinians who continue to suffer," he told reporters.

The UN says its humanitarian operation is opportunistic. It faces problems with Israel's military operation, access restrictions by Israel into and throughout Gaza and looting by armed gangs.

The deal requires 600 truckloads of aid to be allowed into Gaza every day of the initial six-week ceasefire, including 50 carrying fuel. Half of the 600 aid trucks would be delivered to Gaza's north, where experts have warned famine is imminent.

Critical details of the aid surge are still to be worked out.

According to Phelps: "There is a lot riding on this agreement in terms of access of humanitarian aid by humanitarian actors who are largely not part of the negotiation process. 

"It will be very important that both humanitarian organizations, as well as decision makers, work together to ensure that we are able to meet those set targets for this heavily needed humanitarian aid, much of which has been waiting for months just outside of borders to be able to enter." 

Phelps said it was imperative that Israel allowed "unimpeded access of humanitarian organizations to all affected communities."

Israel says there is no aid shortage and accuses Hamas of stealing aid, which the militant group denies.

Former UN aid chief Martin Griffiths, who stepped down at the end of June, said he was concerned "the stark chaos of Gaza and the criminalization ... is going to impede aid even more."

"What worries me about this, as a humanitarian, is that I don't want us to be the fall guys of this deal. We should not be used as an alibi for a failure upon which we weren't even consulted," Griffiths told media network Al Jazeera.

The UN said in June it was Israel's responsibility - as the occupying power in the Gaza Strip - to restore public order and safety in the Palestinian territory so aid can be delivered.

Hamas came to power in Gaza in 2006 after Israeli soldiers and settlers withdrew in 2005, but the enclave is still deemed as Israeli-occupied territory by the United Nations. Israel controls access to Gaza.

Phelps said people shouldn't forget the situation in the West Bank. The aid chief explained: "Levels of violence there are absolutely unprecedented and we've seen restrictions preventing people from going to work, cultivating their fields."

She said that in the West Bank "90 percent of families have seen their income reduced, which has sent more than 75 percent of the population into poverty. What we're looking at is a sustained need of support to help these families rebuild their lives and rebuild hope in their future."