A truck loaded with humanitarian aid prepares to enter Gaza at the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on Oct. 22, 2023.(Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)
Fuel, which is desperately needed to run backup generators, remains banned by the Israeli authorities.
UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Only 62 trucks passed through the Rafa crossing into Gaza in the last four days when 500 trucks a day was the pre-war average, UN humanitarians said on Thursday.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the latest payloads of water, food and medical supplies ferried by the trucks from Egypt already were distributed to medical sites and the displaced in besieged Gaza.
"Fuel, which is desperately needed to run backup generators, remains banned by the Israeli authorities," OCHA said. "As a result, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has almost exhausted its fuel reserves and began to significantly reduce its operations."
Lynn Hastings, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, issued a statement in which she said the Israeli Defense Forces continue to notify people in Gaza City that those who stay in their homes will put themselves in danger.
She said that advance warnings make no difference for people who can't evacuate because they have nowhere to go or are unable to move.
A truck loaded with humanitarian supplies that entered Gaza from the Rafah crossing is seen in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on Oct. 23, 2023. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)
"When the evacuation routes are bombed, when people north as well as south are caught up in hostilities, when the essentials for survival are lacking, and when there are no assurances for return, people are left with nothing but impossible choices," Hastings said. "Nowhere is safe in Gaza."
The coordinator reminded that the conduct of armed conflict anywhere is governed by international humanitarian law, meaning that civilians must be protected and have the essentials to survive wherever they are and whether they choose to move or stay.
"It also means that hostages, all hostages, must be released, immediately and unconditionally," she said.
OCHA said an estimated 1.4 million of the approximately 2 million people living in Gaza are internally displaced, with 629,000 sheltering in 150 UNRWA-designated emergency shelters. The average number of displaced people per shelter has now reached 2.7 times the designated capacity.
Water supply in areas south of Wadi Gaza temporarily improved after UNRWA and the UN Children's Fund delivered small quantities of fuel retrieved from their existing reserves to critical facilities. However, the available fuel in these facilities will be exhausted, likely quite soon, and the supply of piped water is expected to cease again, it said.
Wadi Gaza is a river valley and wetland cutting across the northern part of the Gaza Strip's midsection. ■