The head of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said yesterday that he believed there was a deliberate attempt to “strangle” its humanitarian work in Gaza, warning that the agency may have to entirely suspend its operations due to a lack of fuel. The agency supporting more than 800,000 displaced people in the Israeli-besieged Gaza Strip said many of its services had already been shuttered including dozens of water wells, two water plants and sewage pumping stations.
“I do believe there is a deliberate attempt to strangle our operation and paralyze the operation,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told journalists in Geneva, reported Reuters. “We run the risk to have to suspend the entire humanitarian operation. I do believe that it is outrageous that humanitarian agencies have been reduced to begging for fuel,” he said.
As of Nov. 16, the Israelis had allowed one truckload of 6,340 gallons of fuel into Gaza, a mere drop in the ocean. “Because of the lack of fuel, we will not be able to send our trucks across the south of the Gaza Strip where we have people waiting for humanitarian deliveries,” Lazzarini said. “Today what we are saying is if the fuel does not come in, people will start to die because of the lack of fuel. Exactly as from when, I don’t know. But it will be sooner rather than later,” he warned.
The Egyptian Red Crescent Society (ERCS), which has been a conduit for humanitarian aid supplies flown from the El Arish Airport to Rafah, warned yesterday that it is “close to running out” of humanitarian aid stored at a warehouse in El Arish for the embattled Gaza Strip. The ERCS has received limited amounts of aid, Rami Al-Nazer, CEO of the society told the media on Nov. 16, reported Al Ahram. Some 1,090 trucks carrying 18,800 tons of aid crossed into Gaza via the Rafah crossing in the past weeks, Al-Nazer said. That amount does not cover the daily needs of the Strip’s 2.3 million people, he reported.
