Fuel reaches Gaza for 1st time since beginning of Israeli onslaught, sources say Israel restricts its use

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza received a limited quantity of fuel on Wednesday, the first few liters of the vital resource to reach the strip since the beginning of Israel’s onslaught more than a month ago, an official for the agency said.

The delivery comes at a time when there is a desperate need for fuel in the strip, with the majority of hospitals now closed, water purification plants shut down, communications networks on the verge of collapse and aid trucks unable to deliver already scarce resources for survival.

But the Occupation authorities are restricting how the fuel will be used, allowing it to only go to the UNRWA trucks distributing aid, said Thomas White, the Gaza director of UNRWA Affairs.

The Israeli Occupation has already prevented fuel from reaching Gaza’s residents, more than 2 million people, since it began its relentless bombardment of the strip in early October.

The fuel was delivered to Gaza via the Rafah border crossing between the strip and Egypt after negotiations between the latter and Israel, according to an Egyptian security source who spoke to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity. The negotiations established that a specific quantity of fuel would enter Gaza and that it would only be used for specific purposes and handed directly to United Nations bodies in the strip.

UNRWA, which has warned the lack of fuel would soon prevent it from distributing essential aid to the Palestinians besieged in Gaza, confirmed receipt of 23,027 liters of fuel on Wednesday afternoon via Egypt, with Israeli restrictions to only use it for transporting aid, and not for powering hospitals or water desalination plants.

“This is only 9 percent of what we need daily to sustain lifesaving activities,” White added.

The strip requires about 650,000 liters of fuel per day to cover its basic needs, excluding the needs of fuel stations for vehicles, head of the Palestinian Energy and Natural Resources Authority Dhafer Melhem told Mada Masr.

A humanitarian source quoted by Reuters on Tuesday said that Israel agreed to allow 24,000 liters of diesel into the strip, to be only used by UNRWA trucks and not the strip’s health system, which is near total collapse due to lack of fuel.

The United States pressured the UN to accept the fuel, according to Reuters.

On Wednesday, reports coming from the Rafah border crossing in the morning said that a fuel truck entered the strip through the crossing, carrying the fuel headed for UNRWA. Two more fuel trucks are lined up in Rafah, waiting to follow the first one, according to Egyptian media and security sources quoted by Reuters.

Hospitals of the Gaza Strip are in a state of total collapse due to the absence of fuel needed to power their generators, enforced by Israel’s “complete siege” of the strip that has prevented supplies of food, water, medical aid and fuel from going in, with the exception of aid shipments trickling in via Egypt. 

Power outages in several hospitals in Gaza have already killed ICU patients, premature babies kept on assisted breathing machines and chronic patients who needed regular treatment. The lack of fuel is also disrupting the operations of relief agencies distributing aid supplies, has shut down the strip’s last water desalination plant, and will soon kill all telecommunication and internet services in the strip.

Israel has also stipulated restrictions on the aid deliveries arriving from Egypt, enforcing a total prohibition on essential fuel crossing the border and preventing all aid from reaching the northern part of the strip, where only one hospital remains functional, while simultaneously pushing residents to evacuate and move toward areas south of Gaza Valley, which it claims to be a “safe area” despite continuous bombardment.