Palestinians in a UNrun camp in Khan Younis Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Portal 10/23/2023
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) proposed this Tuesday (24) that the United Nations Organization (UN) is asking Hamas for fuel supplies after the organization, which provides humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, said it would have to suspend its operations on Wednesday evening (25) if the fuel was not delivered.
The UN agency UNRWA posted its warning on social media on Tuesday. The IDF republished the post, saying Hamas militants had more than 500,000 liters of fuel in tanks in the besieged Gaza Strip.
“Ask Hamas if you can use some of it,” the IDF wrote.
Rafah is the main border crossing in and out of Gaza, which does not border Israel. This issue has become the focus of efforts to provide humanitarian aid since Israel imposed a “total siege” on the enclave in retaliation for an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants.
The United States is negotiating with Israel, Egypt and the United Nations to create a mechanism for the sustained delivery of humanitarian assistance to Gaza. The parties dispute procedures for checking aid supplies and bombings on the Gaza side of the border.
Although there were limited deliveries of food, water and medicine since Saturday (21), no fuel was allowed. Israel is concerned about possible fuel diversion by Hamas, and White House national security spokesman John Kirby on Tuesday called Israel’s concerns legitimate.
“We still generally believe that fuel must reach the people of Gaza,” he told reporters.
The Rafah border crossing is crucial for the movement of people and goods between Gaza and the outside world. Recent airstrikes that hit the neutral zone between the Egyptian and Palestinian gates have caused significant damage and further complicated the already tense humanitarian situation in the region. The border crossing is increasingly being discussed in negotiations between different parties and attempts to reach an agreement on it. The war broke out on October 7th. The Rafah border crossing in the southern part of Gaza borders the Sinai Peninsula and is the only way to enter Egypt. It serves as an important link between Gaza and the rest of the world. Efforts to open the Rafah border crossing have so far yielded no results. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said Israel had not yet allowed the opening of the border crossing connecting Gaza with Egypt. Both Israel and Egypt impose strict controls on the passage of people and goods as part of a previous blockade imposed in 2007 after Hamas. Trucks from several countries loaded with hundreds of tons of aid from humanitarian organizations wait in El Aris, one Egyptian city next to Rafah, on the entry into Gaza. Egypt is already hosting around 9 million migrants from countries such as Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Libya, among others, and also facing an economic crisis, is reluctant to simply open the Rafah border crossing to hundreds of thousands of additional refugees
Copyright © Thomson Portal.