The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has allowed the first fuel truck carrying over 20,000 litres of diesel to enter the Gaza Strip from Egypt since the breakout of the war amid an outcry from international aid organisations that underlined the people’s sufferings owing to acute fuel shortage.
Sources with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), however, told IANS that the fuel is “only for the use of the UN and not for hospital purposes”. The UNRWA director in Gaza, Thomas White, confirmed that the agency had received the fuel in a post on X.
The shortage of fuel has led to the malfunctioning of hospitals, water treatment plants, sewage removal and even communications, according to the UNRWA, which has been actively involved in humanitarian aid work in Gaza.
The UN had warned that it would have to halt humanitarian operations in Gaza since it was running out of fuel.
Tamara Al Rifai, the UNRWA’s executive director, communications, told IANS that the Gaza Strip requires a minimum of 500 trucks per day of provisions, aid materials, fuel and other essential commodities for the “minimum functioning of life”, saying Gaza was receiving only around 30 trucks per day, which was highly inadequate.