• WFP calls for all border crossings to be opened as supplies are still short of daily target of 2,000 tonnes
• Vance rules out US troop deployment in Gaza, upbeat about ceasefire

GENEVA/JERUSALEM: Maintaining the Gaza ceasefire is critical for delivering life-saving food aid in the territory, the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday, repeating a call for all border crossings to be opened as supplies were still far short of its daily target of 2,000 tonnes.

Around 750 metric tonnes of food are now entering the Gaza Strip daily, according to the WFP, but this was still well below the scale of needs after two years of bombing by Israel, which has reduced much of Gaza to ruins.

Israel and Hamas have accused each other of repeated breaches of the truce since it was signed eight days ago, with flashes of violence and recriminations over the pace of returning hostage bodies, bringing in aid and opening borders.

“Sustaining the ceasefire is vital; really it’s the only way we can save lives and push back on the famine in the north of Gaza,” Abeer Etefa, Middle East spokeswoman for the UN’s WFP, told reporters in Geneva.

“We know it’s a fragile ceasefire; the most important thing is that it lasts.”

Etefa said that since the ceasefire came into force, 530 WFP trucks had crossed into Gaza, bringing in more than 6,700 tonnes of food, which she said was “enough for close to half a million people for two weeks”.

Around 750 tonnes a day are now coming through, which, although more than before the ceasefire, remains well below WFP’s target or around 2,000 tonnes daily.

“Convoys are pushing through, food is getting to the warehouses and distributions are happening in an organised and dignified manner,” she said.

The spokeswoman said WFP now had 26 food distribution points open in Gaza — up from five on Friday, but still far short of the 145 it hopes to run throughout the territory. Most are in the south and centre of the Strip.

“The response has been really overwhelming,” Etefa said.

She said Palestinians were in “survival mode”, eating only some of the food received, and saving the rest as they are “extremely worried” that the ceasefire might collapse.

Etefa said WFP trucks were only coming through the Kerem Shalom and Kissufim crossings, but called for every entry point into the Palestinian territory to be opened, particularly those in the north, where the food situation “is extremely dire”.

“We don’t have an indication on when those border points will be open,” she added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Neta­n­­­yahu said on Saturday the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will remain closed until further notice, with its reopening dependent on Hamas handing over bodies of deceased hostages.

Vance rules out US troop deployment

Meanwhile, US Vice President JD Vance, who arrived in in Israel on Tuesday, ruled out the possiblity of sending troops into Gaza, reiterating a pledge made by US President Donald Trump and US officials multiple times.

“There are not going to be American boots on the ground in Gaza. The President of the United States has made that very clear. All of our military leadership has made that very clear,” Vance said at a press conference in Kiryat Gat, southern Israel, where a US-led mission is monitoring the Gaza ceasefire.

Vance added that the US would limit itself to providing “useful coordination”.

He also clarified that Washington had not set a deadline for the disarmament of Hamas. “We know that Hamas has to comply with the deal and if Hamas doesn’t comply with the deal, very bad things are going to happen, but I’m not going to do what the President of the United States has thus far refused to do, which is put an explicit deadline on it because a lot of this stuff is difficult.”

Vance, however, was upbeat about the prospects of the ceasefire holding, but said that its implementation would require “constant monitoring and supervision”.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2025