UN Under-Secretary-General for Humaniitarian Affairs and UN Coordinator for the food crisis John Holmes said Tuesday that the policy adopted is of continued pressure on the government of Israel to allow a much freer flow of humanitarian and commercial goods in order to allow the Palestinian people to breath and bring an end to a policy that "we" have described as that of collective punishment. In response to questions from reporters, Holmes explained that his department has intensive discussions with the Israelis on what is going in and about the right amounts of medical assistance needed. "This blockade, this isolation is wrong, should be relaxed and much humanitarian as well as commercial assistance must be allowed as soon as possible," he stressed. Holmes said, in a news conference today, that if the truce can help with that, so be it, but even if a truce was not there humanitarian aide must certainly be delivered. On the food assistance situation in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt), Holmes said there will be a revised appeal for the oPt in two weeks time within the mid-term review of the UN consolidated appeal for all affected countries. He added that the food crisis is hitting hard Gaza where there are enormous problems. Holmes said that there will have to mobilize a large amount of new resources just to tackle the symptoms of the food crisis.
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