UN children’s agency UNICEF said the aid flow to the northern Gaza Strip -- the largest since the Israel-Hamas war erupted on October 7 – was “the right start”.

“(It’s) definitely the right type of aid – fuel, medicines, food, warmth,” spokesman James Elder told a press briefing in Geneva via video-link from Gaza.

But, he warned, the needs in the besieged enclave of more than two million are so huge that “all this aid is triage... It’s not even enough for triage.”

When there are insufficient resources to treat everyone who needs it, hospitals and aid organizations are forced to triage – that is, to prioritize the most urgent cases, or those people most likely to survive, and leave the others.

“The aid needs to multiply... Everything here is emergency care right now,” Elder said.

Margaret Harris of the World Health Organization agreed.

“The needs are massive. The amount of aid we’ve been able to get in is a trickle still,” the WHO spokeswoman told the briefing.

Their comments came as Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas embarked on a two-day extension to an initial four-day truce that has allowed Israeli hostages to be freed from Gaza in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.

The truce paused fighting that began after Israel launched a massive air and ground operation in Gaza, killing at least 15,000 Palestinians in return for Hamas fighters’ incursion into its borders that led to the death of 1,200 people. Some 240 people were also taken hostage.

‘Heartbreaking’

The truce “has caused a moment of respite, critically to get aid in and also for people to take the heartbreaking task of looking for loved ones”, Elder said.

It was vital for the pause in fighting to be prolonged and turned into a permanent ceasefire, he said.