UN agency’s fuel stocks for Palestinians to run out in three days

Fuel reserves in the Gaza Strip are running out and if supplies do not arrive within three days, the operation of hospitals, water distribution and humanitarian aid in general will be affected, warned on Sunday the United Nations Agency for the Palestinians (UNRWA).

In a statement, the organization’s commissioner general, Philippe Lazzarini, warned that fuel is a “fundamental” element for its humanitarian response throughout the Gaza Strip. “Without fuel, there will be no water, hospitals and bakeries will not function. Without fuel, aid will not reach many civilians who desperately need it. Without fuel, there will be no no humanitarian aid,” explained Lazzarini, who stressed that “the lack of fuel is further suffocating the children, women and people of Gaza.

Lazzarini thanked the entry of the humanitarian convoy, made up of 20 trucks carrying emergency supplies, which entered the Palestinian enclave yesterday, but which “is far from sufficient”, because “Gaza needs a uninterrupted and expanded humanitarian supply line.

In fact, Gaza doctors have warned that the lives of 130 premature babies will be in imminent danger if fuel does not reach hospitals quickly. “The world cannot just watch these babies die because of the siege of Gaza,” Melanie Ward, executive director of Medical Aid for Palestinians, said in a statement.

Faced with this situation, he asked “world leaders to demand that Israel urgently authorize the arrival of fuel in hospitals in Gaza. Failure to act is to condemn these babies to death.”

According to the organization, there are six neonatal units in Gaza hospitals, including Shifa and Nasser hospitals, where doctors treating premature babies have already made public the urgent request for fuel to save the lives of the babies in their care.