The United Nations humanitarian agency, Ocha, has warned that Israel’s blockade has caused a fuel crisis in Gaza that could increase suffering and fatalities among the strip’s 2.3 million Palestinians.
Fuel for water desalination plants, hospitals, intensive care units and vital vehicles is being consumed rapidly and there are “virtually no additional stocks left”, Ocha said.
“Hospitals are rationing. Ambulances are stalling. Water systems are on the brink. The deaths this is likely causing could soon increase sharply unless the Israeli authorities allow new fuel in urgently, regularly and in sufficient quantities,” said the agency in a statement.
Director of Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital Mohammed Abu Salmiya told Al-Jazeera: “Blood banks, nurseries and oxygen stations are not operating because of a lack of fuel.”
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World Food Programme chief operating officer Carl Skau said in a social media post: “The needs are greater than ever, and our capacity to respond has never been more constrained. Famine is spreading, and people are dying trying to find food.”
He said: “Our teams in Gaza are doing their best to deliver aid and are often caught in the crossfire. We are suffering from shortages of fuel, spare parts and essential communications equipment.”
Gaza’s health ministry also warned of a worsening situation. “The catastrophic conditions in shelters, the severe shortage of drinking water, the spread of sewage, and the accumulation of waste are driving the health situation to further deterioration,” the ministry said.
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On Sunday UN under-secretary general Jorge Moreira da Silva warned that teams on the ground had recovered “the last remaining 150,000 litres of diesel from our storage tanks inside Gaza. This is less than what the [overall] humanitarian operation requires in a single day”.
He said the shortage is forcing the UN to make “impossible choices” on which operations to prioritise. On June 5th it provided fuel desalination rather than sewage pumps knowing that “sewage will flood the streets again in some areas”.
No fuel has entered Gaza since March 2nd, when Israel halted all humanitarian aid supplies to the Strip. Since the end of May Israel has charged the controversial US and Israeli backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) with providing limited food at four hubs. On Saturday Gaza’s health ministry said 743 Palestinians had been killed and 4,891 injured while trying to get food at the sites.
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Before the US government donated $30 million to GHF, the US Agency for International Development (USAid) warned of “critical concerns” about GHF’s operations.
Israel’s insistence that GHF should remain the main supplier of aid to Gaza has been rejected by Hamas in negotiations. The UN has called for humanitarian aid agencies to resume deliveries at the 400 sites that were used before Israel’s blockade.
The war began on October 7th, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages into Gaza.
Israel’s subsequent campaign against Hamas in Gaza has since killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, displaced almost the entire population of more than two million people, sparked a humanitarian crisis in the enclave and left much of the territory in ruins. – Additional reporting: Reuters
