WFP’s McCain: 'No difference' in Gaza aid flow despite Israel’s tactical pause

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WASHINGTON — Israel’s pause in combat operations along a designated route in the southern Gaza Strip hasn’t helped to increase the flow of aid since coming into effect on Saturday, said Cindy McCain, executive director of the UN World Food Program.

“We haven't been able to get in,” McCain told Al-Monitor in a June 20 interview. “We've had to reroute some of our trucks. They've been looted. As you know, we've been shot at, and we've been rocketed. So as far as we can tell, there's no difference at all.”

Only a trickle of humanitarian assistance is reaching the Gaza Strip’s desperately hungry population after more than eight months of war, partially due to a cumbersome Israeli inspections process, fuel shortages that are disrupting truck deliveries and flawed deconfliction channels that are supposed to ensure aid workers aren't inadvertently bombed.