UN warns Gaza fuel shortage will stop aid work by end of day

UNITED NATIONS - The main United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in besieged Gaza warned it will have to stop operations by the end of Wednesday because it is running out of fuel.

Fuel supplies are dangerously close to running out, it said late on Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter, adding that fuel deliveries must be let in to ensure people have clean drinking water, hospitals can remain open and life-saving aid operations can continue.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said more than one-third of hospitals in Gaza and nearly two-thirds of primary health clinics had shut due to damage or lack of fuel.

Alarm has grown about the spiralling humanitarian crisis in the heavily bombarded Gaza Strip where one doctor said he was forced to perform emergency surgery on the wounded without anaesthetic.

Israel has cut off impoverished Gaza’s usual water, food and other supplies, and fewer than 70 relief trucks have entered since the war started – “a drop of aid in an ocean of need”, warned UN chief Antonio Guterres.

Israel’s military suggested on Tuesday that the UN ask Hamas for fuel supplies, adding that the Palestinian militants have more than 500,000 litres of fuel in tanks inside Gaza.

“Ask Hamas if you can have some,” the Israel Defence Forces wrote on X, in response to UNRWA’s post.

Some trucks transported aid to Palestinian civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the UN said.

The UN had earlier said about 20 trucks had been unable to cross into Gaza from Egypt via the Rafah crossing on Tuesday.

The Palestinian Red Crescent later said eight trucks had arrived in Gaza late on Tuesday carrying water, food and medicine.

The United States is negotiating with Israel, Egypt and the UN to try and create a delivery mechanism to get aid into Gaza. They are wrangling over procedures for inspecting the aid and bombardments on the Gaza side of the border.

When asked by reporters at the White House on Tuesday whether aid was getting to Gaza as fast as needed, US President Joe Biden said: “Not fast enough.”

Rafah is the main crossing in and out of Gaza that does not border Israel.

It has become the focus of efforts to deliver aid since

Israel imposed a “total siege” of the enclave

in retaliation for

an attack by Hamas militants on Oct 7

that killed nearly 1,400 people.

At least 6,546 Palestinians, including 2,704 children, were killed and 17,439 wounded in Israeli strikes since Oct 7, the Health Ministry in Gaza said on Wednesday.

Since limited aid deliveries began last Saturday,

54 trucks have crossed into Gaza carrying food, medicine and water.

UN agencies say more than 20 times as much are needed by the narrow coastal strip’s 2.3 million people, even in peacetime.

Senior UN aid official Lynn Hastings had earlier told the Security Council that 20 trucks were due to cross on Tuesday.

No fuel has been delivered. Israel is concerned about the possible diversion of fuel deliveries by Hamas.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby on Tuesday described Israel’s concerns as legitimate.

“We still believe, just in general, that fuel needs to be able to get in to the people of Gaza,” he told reporters.

Israel’s military spokesman Daniel Hagari on Tuesday accused Hamas of stealing petrol from UNRWA, saying: “Petrol will not enter Gaza. Hamas takes the petrol for its military infrastructure.”

Ms Hastings said no fuel “means no hospitals functioning, no desalination of water and no baking”.

“Many people are drinking saline groundwater, increasing the risks of diarrhoea, cholera and other health issues. We urge Israel to bring water and electricity supplies back to pre-conflict levels and to work with us to find a secure way of bringing fuel into Gaza,” she said.

“While we negotiate with the government of Israel as to how best to bring fuel into Gaza, we have 400,000 litres on trucks ready to go. This would provide fuel for approximately 2½ more days.” REUTERS