As Israel approves aid fuel for Gaza, UN says starvation imminent
- There is no sign of a let-up in Israel’s retaliatory war on Hamas militants in Gaza, despite international calls for a ceasefire or humanitarian pauses
- ‘With winter approaching, unsafe and overcrowded shelters, and the lack of clean water, civilians are facing the immediate possibility of starvation’
UN aid deliveries to Gaza were suspended again on Friday due to shortages of fuel and a communications shutdown, deepening the misery of thousands of hungry and homeless Palestinians as Israeli troops battled Hamas militants in the enclave.
The United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) said civilians faced the “immediate possibility of starvation” due to the lack of food supplies.
For a second consecutive day on Thursday, no aid trucks arrived due to a lack of fuel for distributing relief.
Israel said later Friday that it had approved two fuel trucks a day to help meet UN needs following a US request. The trucks would be let in for the UN to use in supporting water and sewage infrastructure, Israeli officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity pending an official announcement.
Israel has barred entry to fuel since the start of the war, saying it would be diverted by Hamas for military means. It has also barred food, water and other supplies except for a trickle of aid from Egypt via its Rafah crossing that aid workers say falls far short of what is needed.
Palestinian news agency WAFA said a number of Palestinians were killed and others injured in an Israeli strike that hit a group of displaced people near the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, the transit point for aid.
Al Jazeera TV cited sources as saying that nine people were killed in the strike. There was no immediate comment from Israel on the reported strike and Reuters could not verify it.
Al-Shifa hospital, packed with patients and displaced people and struggling to keep operating, has been a major focus of global concern this week.
Israel says Hamas has stored weapons and ammunition and is holding hostages in a network of tunnels under hospitals like al-Shifa, using patients and people taking shelter there as human shields. Hamas denies this.
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With the war about to enter its seventh week, there is no sign of any let-up despite international calls for a ceasefire or at least for humanitarian pauses.
A UN human rights official said on Friday that Israel must allow water and fuel into Gaza to restart the water supply network.
“Every hour that passes with Israel preventing the provision of safe drinking water in the Gaza Strip, in brazen breach of international law, puts Gazans at risk of dying of thirst and diseases,” Pedro Arrojo-Agudo said.
The World Health Organization said it was very worried about the spread of disease, citing more than 70,000 reported cases of acute respiratory infections and over 44,000 cases of diarrhoea, far more than expected.
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The conflict was triggered by a cross-border raid by Hamas militants on October 7 that killed about 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians.
More than 11,500 Palestinians, at least 4,700 of them children, have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory military assault on Hamas-ruled Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, a toll that far surpasses previous bouts of conflict in recent years.
Israel has vowed to wipe out the militant group. Whole neighbourhoods of Gaza have been flattened in air and artillery strikes, hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes, and the humanitarian situation is catastrophic, aid agencies say.
World Food Programme Executive Director Cindy McCain said nearly the entire population was in desperate need of food assistance.
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“Supplies of food and water are practically non-existent in Gaza and only a fraction of what is needed is arriving through the borders,” she said.
“With winter fast approaching, unsafe and overcrowded shelters, and the lack of clean water, civilians are facing the immediate possibility of starvation.”
Reuters journalists have been unable to reach anyone inside Shifa hospital for over 24 hours.
Hamas said on Thursday that claims by the United States that the group uses al-Shifa for military purposes was “a repetition of a blatantly false narrative, demonstrated by the weak and ridiculous performances of the occupation army spokesman”.
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Israeli officials had said Hamas held some of the 240 hostages in the hospital complex.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Hamas’s Al-Quds Brigades said they had engaged Israeli forces for several hours in the city of Jenin overnight into Friday, unleashing a “torrent of fire” and laying ambushes with explosives.
Israel’s military said that war planes struck militants in Jenin who had opened fire on Israeli soldiers. It said at least five militants were killed.
At least 178 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the October 7 attack on Israel. The violence has underscored fears that the territory, seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War, could spiral out of control in tandem with the conflict in Gaza.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
