A Palestinian girl holds a container as she waits to collect portable water, in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip on Oct. 26, 2023, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.
MOHAMMED ABED/AFP via Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
MOHAMMED ABED/AFP via Getty Images
A Palestinian girl holds a container as she waits to collect portable water, in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip on Oct. 26, 2023, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.
MOHAMMED ABED/AFP via Getty Images
TEL AVIV, Israel — The streets of Gaza are empty of cars. Many of its bakeries are shuttered; meat suppliers have no refrigeration. Doctors perform operations by flashlight.
Although 62 aid trucks have entered Gaza since last weekend carrying much-needed food, water and medical supplies, none have delivered fuel — which Israel has blocked over concerns it could be stolen and used by Hamas.
As a result, aid groups have escalated their warnings, saying the lack of fuel has reached a critical point. UNRWA, the United Nations agency that provides relief to Palestinians, says it could run out of fuel within a day.
“The situation is terrible and it gets worse by the hour — not even by the day — every hour, things get worse and worse for people in Gaza,” Juliette Touma, an UNRWA spokesperson, told NPR.
Touma said fuel is needed for U.N. vehicles to collect aid from the border and distribute it across Gaza. Fuel is also used to power hospitals, where doctors have warned that people will die if life-saving medical equipment is forced to go out of operation.
The lack of fuel has also disabled water pumps and restricted an already limited food supply in Gaza, the U.N. warns.
The World Health Organisation has said it has trucks on standby across the border in Egypt with medical supplies. ” WHO calls for immediate and uninterrupted access into and across Gaza, so that it’s ailing health system can be urgently revived”
Most of Gaza’s bakeries have shut down, including many of those that contract with the World Food Programme. (At least 10 bakeries have been struck and destroyed over the last week, according to the U.N.)
For those that remain intact and operational, long lines form daily, exposing people to airstrikes. The lack of electricity or fuel for generators has started to affect meat suppliers, too, who cannot refrigerate their products, according to the U.N.
In response to an UNRWA appeal for fuel on the social media site X, the Israel Defense Forces responded with a satellite image of what it described as fuel tanks located in Gaza.
“Ask Hamas if you can have some,” the agency wrote.
The Hamas supply contains “enough for many days for hospitals and water pumps to run,” Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an IDF spokesperson, said Thursday.
Over the last few days, Israel has increased the intensity of its attacks on Gaza, with hundreds of airstrikes each night. Overnight Thursday the The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carries out a “targeted raid” in northern Gaza using tanks. The military posted a statement online saying the incursion was carried out “in preparation for the next stages of combat”.
In an interview on NPR’s All Things Considered, World Food Programme Executive Director Cindy McCain said she was not hopeful about the state of negotiations over allowing additional aid into Gaza.
“Nothing’s working. Nothing’s happening. Both sides are not talking,” McCain said. “They’re not dealing with the issue of people who are going to die. They’re gonna die as a result of no food, no water, no ability to support themselves.”
The reported death has approached 7,000, health officials in Gaza say.
Asked Wednesday about the reported death toll, President Biden responded that he had “no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using.”
Mourners gather around the graves of British-Israelis Lianne Sharabi and her two daughters, Noiya,16, and Yahel,13, during their funeral in Kfar Harif, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 25,…
Read More: Death toll in Gaza approaches 7,000 as aid groups raise alarm about fuel : NPR