CNN –
Vital supplies of fuel needed to run hospitals and supply water to the Gaza Strip are nearing depletion, a United Nations agency said, deepening the crisis in a densely populated area already suffering severe shortages.
The warning from the main UN agency operating in Gaza that it will be forced to suspend operations by Wednesday evening due to fuel shortages comes after Israeli airstrikes on the besieged strip killed more than 700 people in 24 hours, according to Palestinian officials .
“If we do not get fuel urgently, we will be forced to suspend our operations in the #Gaza Strip from tomorrow evening,” the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) wrote on social media on Tuesday. Gaza needs at least 160,000 liters (42,267 gallons) of fuel per day for basic needs, UNRWA spokeswoman Juliette Touma said.
Doctors in overwhelmed hospitals on the brink of closure have repeatedly warned that waves of new patients injured in the daily bombings and babies in need of oxygen will die if fuel is not supplied.
Meanwhile, a heated row has broken out between Israel and the United Nations after Secretary-General António Guterres called on Tuesday for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” and said there were “clear violations of international humanitarian law” in Gaza.
“Protecting civilians does not mean ordering more than a million people to evacuate to the south, where there is no shelter, no food, no water, no medicine and no fuel – and then continuing to bomb the south itself,” Guterres said .
He called Hamas’ killing and kidnapping on October 7 “appalling” but said it “cannot justify collective punishment of the Palestinian people.” Excellencies, even war has rules.”
“It is important to recognize that Hamas’ attacks did not occur in a vacuum,” Guterres said. “The Palestinian people have been subjected to oppressive occupation for 56 years. They have seen their land continually consumed by settlements and wracked by violence. their economy ground to a halt; Their people were displaced and their homes destroyed.”
These comments sparked an angry reaction from Israeli officials. Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan called on Guterres to “immediately resign” following his comments and wrote on social media that he was “not fit to lead the UN.”
Erdan then said on Wednesday his country would block visas for United Nations officials. He told the Israeli army radio station that his government had already rejected a request from UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths.
“It’s time to teach them a lesson,” Erdan added.
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, who was at the United Nations on Tuesday, said he would not meet with Guterres and that “there is no room for a balanced approach.”
“Hamas must be wiped from the face of the earth!” Cohen wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Seth Wenig/AP
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters Oct. 24.
Gaza’s deteriorating health environment, lack of sanitation and consumption of dirty, salty water are raising fears of a health crisis in which people could die of dehydration as the water system collapses and bombs continue to fall.
According to UNRWA, only eight of 20 aid trucks scheduled to travel to Gaza on Tuesday made the journey. No specific reason was given as to why the other twelve trucks did not pass through the Rafah border crossing.
Since Israel’s siege began two weeks ago, six hospitals in Gaza have been forced to close due to a lack of fuel, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.
People at risk of death or suffering medical complications include “1,000 patients in need of dialysis” and “130 premature babies,” as well as other vulnerable patients “who rely on stable and uninterrupted power supply, to stay alive,” the WHO said in a statement.
Mustafa Hassona/Anadolu/Getty Images
Patients are treated at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on October 24, 2023.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Tuesday ruled out importing fuel into the Gaza Strip, saying Hamas would co-opt fuel for its operational infrastructure and continue its rocket attacks.
Israel has also denied that there are fuel shortages in Gaza. In response to the UNRWA report on CNN is unable to verify the IDF claim.
Israel’s leadership has vowed to wipe out Hamas in response to the deadly Oct. 7 terror attacks and kidnapping attacks that killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and took more than 200 hostage.
Following the attack, Israel launched a sustained airstrike on Gaza that has now killed more than 5,000 people, according to Palestinian health officials.
Mohammed Salem/Portal
An aid truck arrives at a UN camp on October 21, 2023, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues in central Gaza.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, more than 700 people were killed in Gaza in the previous 24 hours. This is the highest daily figure published since Israeli attacks on so-called Hamas targets in Gaza began two and a half weeks ago on Tuesday.
Those killed included 305 children, 173 women and 78 elderly people, the ministry said.
About two million people live crammed into Gaza’s 140-square-mile coastal strip, half of whom are children.
As the humanitarian crisis in Gaza deepens, the international community is struggling to find consensus.
The US has rejected calls for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told CNN on Monday that Hamas must first release the hostages held in Gaza.
CNN reported on Tuesday, citing two sources familiar with the matter and a Western diplomat familiar with the deliberations, that talks were underway to secure the release of a large number of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. However, the conversations are complicated by a number of factors.
The USA, Israel, Qatar, Egypt and Hamas are involved in the ongoing discussions. So far four hostages – two Americans and two Israelis – have been released. However, the hope now is to reach an agreement that will allow the immediate release of a larger group of hostages.
Israel has so far held off from launching a ground attack on the Gaza Strip, and the United States has urged Israel to delay it even further to allow the release of more hostages held by Hamas.
Secretary Cohen told the United Nations on Tuesday that it was Israel’s mission to bring the hostages home.
“While we’re still here, there are babies that are in captivity, twins, Holocaust survivors, and we have a mission: to bring them home,” Cohen said.
U.S. military advisers have also urged the Israelis to avoid a full-scale ground attack on Gaza and to steer Israel away from the kind of brutal urban fighting that the U.S. waged against insurgents during the Iraq War to prevent the Israelis from being affected by several of them Sources familiar with the matter told CNN that it was mired in bloody urban warfare.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to tell soldiers on Tuesday that a ground offensive was still on track, saying: “We are facing the next phase, it is coming.”