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While the access route from Egypt becomes operational soon, aid groups confront major difficulties providing supplies to the northern region, the area hardest impacted by hunger, according to experts.

Access Challenges

Key roads are virtually unusable due to massive destruction across the conflict-affected area – or remain occupied by security personnel. Any vehicle that breaks down is probably will be quickly plundered.

Zikim, the key gateway to the northern region, devastated by multiple years of war, has been inactive for many days, and authorities have notified aid groups in Gaza that there are no short-term arrangements to reopen the crossing, according to humanitarian staff.

Damage in Gaza City

Gaza City was the target of a large-scale military operation initiated in August that was still under way when the ceasefire deal was agreed upon a week ago.

Destruction in the northern region has been extensive, with complete communities including urban centers and adjacent communities in destroyed as well as many of the surrounding regions of the urban center.

"Any opening of a access route into Gaza is beneficial, but we need to guarantee we can access populations where they are," stated an experienced official from a humanitarian organization.

Humanitarian Situation

Local residents said many of the roughly 300,000 people who have come back to the northern region from the crowded shelter regions where they had been living during the Israeli offensive were now "living" among the ruins of their homes, often without any shelter and with insufficient food or water.

An official from a UN agency said the devastation in Gaza City was "overwhelming".

"We see neighborhood after neighborhood, structure after structure ... there is urgent requirement for clean water. It's pretty harrowing. We must have all the crossings functioning," the official, who was in the northern city recently, stated.

Limited Entry

An organization head working from the northern city said the necessities in what used to be the region's bustling commercial and social center were "enormous".

"There is positive expectation and optimism but there needs to be immediate enhancement on the crossings. We didn't witness substantial progress on the ground yet," the official stated.

"There remains a small quantity of support [and] we are just beginning to understand the degree of destruction. So many streets are overwhelmed by rubble ... there is scarcely a building that is secure. We see destruction and unexploded ordnance throughout the area."

Current Changes

In recent days, humanitarian organizations said limited amounts of essential fuel entered Gaza for the first time in seven months, along with consignments of grain products, rice and farm products. The recent deliveries sent market costs falling.

Within a central community, a civilian said there had been certain progress since the truce.

"The markets are stocked with products, vegetables, and produce, although the costs are remaining elevated and not affordable for all people," the person commented.

Winter Needs

"The primary requirements at present, specifically due to the coming of colder weather, are to have a tent to shelter us from the cold weather and winter clothes because the shops do not have sufficient clothing for us or, if they can be found, they are extremely limited and prohibitively costly."

Nine internationally-backed food preparation facilities in various locations have begun working again since the peace agreement.

Assistance Distribution

Transport were stated to have come through the border access point through Israeli territory to Gaza during recent days, though exact numbers were unclear.

Israel's news organization reported that Wednesday's assistance transports would include food, healthcare equipment, energy sources, cooking gas and equipment to repair vital infrastructure.

"Assistance resources remains flowing to the Gaza territory through the humanitarian corridor and additional routes after safety verification," an government spokesperson stated.

Distribution Complications

But counting the volume of transports could be deceptive, warned an expert from an international NGO. "It's crucial to understand what is in the vehicles and how full they are for it to be a truly significant measurement," the representative added.

Private companies are dispatching fleets of transports loaded with confectionery, carbonated beverages and treats, which have poor dietary quality, while emergency treatments for children or individuals who have lacked sufficient nutrition for two years are limited.

Healthcare Conditions

Within the northern urban center, only a handful of nutritional outpatient clinics are functioning, compared with 45 in earlier this year.

Many agencies have substantial resources worth of supplies warehoused in the region pending distribution. A humanitarian body supporting Palestinians across the region for decades has extended provisions of nutrition for all residents in place to be transported.

"We possess the resources, the tools and the skills ... we simply must have the entry," said one aid worker, recently returned from Gaza.

Diplomatic Aspects

An international initiative specifies that "comprehensive" support should enter Gaza and be distributed through international organizations and humanitarian networks, without interference from any combatant organizations or national security.

This appears to exclude the controversial authority-approved humanitarian organization which commenced activities in earlier this year, causing chaotic scenes and numerous casualties as large groups of people gathered around its assistance centers.

Humanitarian workers in Gaza {told|informed