A total of 62 humanitarian aid trucks have entered Gaza since Saturday.
Eight humanitarian aid trucks entered Gaza on Tuesday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said. Photo courtesy of Palestine Red Crescent Society/X
A fourth convoy of aid has entered Gaza, according to a Palestinian humanitarian organization, which said the trucks contained water, food and medicine but no fuel.
The eight trucks entered Gaza from Egypt via the Rafah border crossing on Tuesday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said.
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The Palestine Red Crescent receives the fourth batch of humanitarian aid from its Egyptian counterpart at the Rafah crossing, consisting of 8 trucks:
5 trucks of water 2 trucks of food 1 truck of medicine.#Gaza #humantarianaid pic.twitter.com/y5bZUOGCPe— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) October 24, 2023
A total of 62 humanitarian aid trucks have now entered Gaza since Saturday when Egypt opened the border crossing after U.S. President Joe Biden secured a deal with Cairo to permit supplies into the blockaded Palestinian enclave and from Israel to not interfere in the transfer. Advertisement
None of the trucks that have entered the country have contained fuel, which Palestinian and United Nations officials have repeatedly said Gaza will run out of soon, which will affect the operation of the strip’s facilities, including hospitals, as Israel has cut electricity and water to the region.
The United Nations relief agency in Gaza said it will have used up its fuel supplies in the next two days, “putting at risk the delivery of humanitarian aid to people in need.”
Fuel stocks at functioning UNRWA primary healthcare centers are about to run out, it said, and Palestinian health officials have warned that the lack of fuel puts patients at risk.
At least 12 hospitals and 32 health centers in Gaza are out of service, and the Palestinian health ministry fears that more will stop operating in the coming hours due to Israeli’s incessant bombing and a lack of fuel.
“We call on the international community to quickly supply hospitals with fuel to save thousands of wounded and sick people,” the ministry said.
A spokesman for the ministry said in a separate statement that their immediate priority is fuel and emergency medical supplies. “The situation of hospitals does not allow the simplest medical service to the injured and patients,” the spokesman said on Facebook. Advertisement
The quantity of humanitarian aid entering Gaza starting last weekend is a small fraction of the hundreds of trucks a day that would cross into the enclave prior to Hamas’ Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel, which catalyzed the Middle Eastern country to wage war against the militant group.
U.N. officials have said the trucks that have entered represent no more than 4% of the daily volume of aid that Gazans received pre-war.
“The aid delivered to Gaza so far is barely making a dent,” Martin Griffiths, U.N. under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, tweeted Tuesday.
“We need more, and we need it now. We need it to include fuel. And we need it to go to civilians in need wherever they are. I can’t stress this enough.”
Lynn Hasting, deputy special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday via teleconference that the shipments of aid have provided a “glimmer of hope” to those facing a dire situation.
However, fuel, she said, is essential for powering services that people need to survive.
“Without fuel, our humanitarian operation will stop,” she said. “No fuel means no hospitals functioning, no desalination of water and no baking.” Advertisement
Many people are being forced to drink saline groundwater, raising risks of sickness and disease, she said, calling on Israel to return water and electricity to pre-war levels and to work with them on finding a secure way to bring fuel in.
Trucks with some 105,668 gallons of fuel are ready, she said, which will provide enough energy for another 60 hours.
The Israeli military is not allowing fuel into Gaza over fears that it will fall into the hands of Hamas.
Amid the pleas for fuel, Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories agency under the ministry of defense tweeted accusations that Hamas has “hundreds of thousands of liters of fuel” and that the militant group was keeping it from hospitals.
It even posted a editorial cartoon stating that while Hamas says its hospitals are without have fuel, it is hoarding barrels.
Who's got the fuel in Gaza? pic.twitter.com/Tv3XgqM5ZO— COGAT (@cogatonline) October 24, 2023
According to the United Nations, more than 1.4 million Palestinians are internally displaced, nearly 600,000 of who are staying at UNRWA’s 150 shelters.
