This Friday the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza will be interrupted due to a lack of fuel, according to UNRWA
Thomas White, director of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, confirmed to X that this Friday there will be no cross-border relief operations at the Rafah crossing. “Tomorrow there will be no cross-border aid operation at the Rafah border crossing. The communication network in Gaza is down because there is no fuel. It has made it impossible to manage or coordinate humanitarian aid convoys,” he wrote.
The High Commissioner of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, spoke in the same line hours before, assuring that there is a deliberate attempt to “strangle” the humanitarian work of the organization in Gaza and also warning that the agency may have to completely suspend operations due to fuel shortages.
UNRWA, which supports more than 800,000 displaced people in the Israeli-besieged Gaza Strip, has warned that many of its services have been shut down, including dozens of wells, two water treatment plants, and sewage pumping stations.
“It is outrageous that humanitarian agencies are reduced to begging for fuel,” Lazzarini added. According to UNRWA’s top official, the organization has been pleading for weeks for access to fuel, which on Wednesday was brought to Gaza for the first time since the start of Israel’s war against Hamas.
That fuel—24,000 liters (6,340 gallons) of diesel for UN aid distribution trucks—is nowhere near what Gazans need to survive, Lazzarini said.
Israel rejects the import of the fuel, saying Hamas can use it for military purposes.
