The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), citing figures from Israeli authorities monitoring their controlled crossings, tallied 716 trucks on Wednesday, including 16 carrying fuel and gas.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- A whole convoy of aid trucks from the World Food Programme has managed to get to a warehouse in Gaza without being looted, and there has been a dramatic drop in looting incidents, a UN spokesperson said Thursday.

"We have seen the incidents of looting drop dramatically. And I think today and yesterday was a vast improvement in our ability to bring aid in safely from the crossings to the warehouses," said Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), citing figures from Israeli authorities monitoring their controlled crossings, tallied 716 trucks on Wednesday, including 16 carrying fuel and gas.

OCHA said the trucks sent through were a combination of the commercial sector, bilateral donations and the UN-coordinated aid system.

The office said the world body and its partners are sending more supplies through the crossings, first offloading and then collecting payloads from inside Gaza.

OCHA said that teams from across the UN have finished clearing the main roads leading to the Erez and Zikim crossings in the north in anticipation of their potential re-opening, which would allow aid to be brought directly into northern Gaza.

On Thursday, teams were checking the Salah Ad Din Road, the main north-south artery beside the coastal Al Rasheed Road. The humanitarian community aimed to increase the roads available to its teams to move around within Gaza.

On Tuesday, 21 partners distributed nearly 960,000 meals through 175 kitchens, and bakeries supported by the United Nations and partners produced more than 100,000 bread bundles.

OCHA said that multiple UN agencies on Tuesday visited the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, which was severely affected by the recent military operation. The team met with returnees and with those who have remained, hearing how determined they are to rebuild.

The team's main humanitarian priority was access to water, alongside food, shelter and the removal of debris. People who have lost their homes were staying in tents, while those who returned to homes that were still inhabitable began clearing rubble and cleaning up.

OCHA noted that the Israeli authorities do not issue visas for several international NGOs and do not authorize many of them to send supplies into Gaza. Supplies from Egypt still need to detour for inspections on the Israeli side of the Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem crossing, pending opening of the Rafah crossing for more direct access.

UN relief chief Tom Fletcher stressed that the humanitarian community cannot deliver at the necessary scale without international NGO presence and engagement, calling for the opening of all crossings to allow a massive scale-up and to start turning the situation around.■