According to UNRWA, the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza will be suspended this Friday due to a lack of fuel
Thomas White, director of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, confirmed in X that there will be no cross-border aid operations at the Rafah border crossing this Friday. “There will be no cross-border relief operation at the Rafah border crossing tomorrow. The communications network in Gaza is down because there is no fuel. This makes it impossible to manage or coordinate humanitarian aid convoys,” he wrote.
UNRWA High Commissioner Philippe Lazzarini expressed the same sentiment hours earlier, assuring that there was a deliberate attempt to “strangle” the organization’s humanitarian work in Gaza and also warning that the organization could do so because of have to stop operations completely due to a lack of fuel.
UNRWA, which is supporting more than 800,000 displaced people in the Israeli-besieged Gaza Strip, has already warned that many of its services have already been closed, including dozens of wells, two water treatment plants and sewage pumping stations.
“It is outrageous that humanitarian organizations are reduced to begging for fuel,” Lazzarini added. According to UNRWA’s top official, the organization had been pleading for weeks for access to the fuel, which was transported to Gaza on Wednesday for the first time since Israel’s war against Hamas began.
That fuel – 24,000 liters (6,340 gallons) of diesel fuel for United Nations aid trucks – is far from what Gazans need to survive, Lazzarini said.
Israel opposes fuel imports, saying Hamas could use it for military purposes.