UN to provide food rations to 350 families in Gaza

UNITED NATIONS - United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has announced that it would soon provide emergency food assistance for about 350 families with around 2,100 people in the Gaza Strip whose houses were destroyed in recent Israeli attacks.

The families would receive canned food and bread for an initial period of 10 days, UN Deputy Spokesperson Eduardo del Buey said at a daily news briefing here on Wednesday.

Four trucks with WFP food stocks, sufficient to feed 5,600 people for a month, have failed to cross Israel's Kerem Shalom border crossing with Gaza due to rocket fire, the spokesperson said.

"It is critical to ensure this access point is open for humanitarian food and other supplies in the coming days," he noted.

The Gaza conflict between Israel and the Islamic Hamas movement broke out last Wednesday, reportedly killing more than 140 Palestinians and at least five Israelis, and injuring more than 1,000 others on both sides.

On Wednesday afternoon, Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr announced that Israel and Hamas had reached a ceasefire agreement.

The Egypt-brokered truce took effect at 09:00 pm Gaza time (1900 GMT) the same day.