Doctors Without Borders calls for immediate aid flow into Gaza Strip

Doctors Without Borders has called on the Israeli authorities to allow a "sufficient and unimpeded flow of humanitarian assistance" into the sealed-off Gaza Strip, following the start of the ceasefire in the two-year war on Friday.

Evacuations of patients in need of urgent specialist medical care must be authorized, the aid organization said in its statement.

"This ceasefire must be accompanied by an immediate massive and sustained scale-up of aid into and across the Strip, including the north," the group wrote.

Doctors Without Borders emphasized that the suffering of Gaza's population is not over: "Palestinians in Gaza who survived the war are now doing so amid the ruins of what was once their homes and have immense medical, psychological, and material needs."

There is an urgent need for the most basic goods in the Gaza Strip: medical equipment, medicine, food, water, fuel and adequate shelter, it said. The majority of people are facing the approaching winter without a roof over their heads, the aid organization warned.

The ceasefire agreed between Israel and the Palestinian resistance group Hamas is intended to enable new aid deliveries. The next steps towards a lasting peace have not yet been finalized.