JERUSALEM, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- Israel said Friday that more than 93,000 tents and over 8,600 truckloads of winter supplies had entered the Gaza Strip, a day after more than 50 countries and international organizations urged it to ease restrictions on humanitarian deliveries.
The Israeli military said it had also approved the entry of 16 sewage vacuum trucks and medical equipment, and was coordinating repairs to water and drainage infrastructure.
"In the medical sector, hundreds of trucks carrying medical equipment and medications have entered the Gaza Strip in recent weeks, with supplies delivered directly to hospitals and clinics," it said.
In a joint statement on Thursday, countries and organizations led by Britain, Qatar and Jordan warned that many Palestinians lacked adequate shelter and called on Israel to allow essential supplies into Gaza.
On Nov. 7, Gaza's civil defense authorities declared a state of maximum emergency as a rainstorm flooded around 70,000 tents housing displaced Palestinians and overwhelmed rescue services.
As of Nov. 8, humanitarian partners had received appeals for aid from more than 26,000 households whose shelters or belongings were damaged. More than 6,000 family shelters were reportedly destroyed and 17,400 damaged, and more than 3,900 households currently have no shelter at all, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The OCHA said about 1.4 million Palestinians, or 65 percent of Gaza's population, were living in tents or makeshift shelters. It warned that humanitarian shelter stocks inside Gaza were virtually exhausted, while more than 150,000 tents remained outside the territory awaiting entry.
Israel says it restricts certain materials over concerns that Hamas could use them for military purposes. ■
