Dujarric told reporters on Tuesday local time that efforts to deliver fuel and vital humanitarian aid to Gaza are being hampered by clashes, damaged roads, access restrictions and lack of public order and security.
These factors prevent the movement of humanitarian cargo on the main route from Kerem Shalom crossing to the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis and Deir al-Balah in the center, he added:
The UN spokesperson continued: "The conflict along the Blue Line has displaced thousands of people from their homes in the past nine months, and many of them have temporarily taken refuge in schools.”
Israeli regime waged its brutal war on the besieged enclave of Gaza on October 7 after Hamas carried out an unprecedented operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in retaliation for its decades of atrocities against the Palestinian people.
The war cabinet on May 6, 2024, despite international opposition, approved a ground invasion of the city of Rafah, located in the south of the Gaza Strip. Rafah has witnessed heavy shelling and airstrikes in all its areas, including the residential areas, and the regime has even closed the only gate of the Palestinians in Gaza to the world by attacking the Rafah crossing.
The regime has imposed a complete siege on the densely-populated territory, cutting off fuel, electricity, food, and water to more than two million Palestinians living there.
The World Health Organization has recently warned that severe fuel shortage exacerbated health care situation in Gaza, with premature infants are facing life-threatening scenarios.
'We again issue an urgent appeal for the Rafah crossing to be reopened and for a sustained flow of fuel, food, water and medical supplies to be permitted into and across Gaza,' said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Friday,
“Only 90,000L (liters) of fuel entered Gaza yesterday. The health sector alone needs 80,000L daily, forcing the UN – including WHO - and partners to make impossible choices,” he said in a statement posted on X.
Currently, partners are directing limited fuel supplies to key hospitals such as Nasser Medical Complex, Al-Amal Hospital, and Kuwaiti Field Hospital and 21 ambulances, to keep services running, Ghebreyesus said, warning that losing more hospitals would be catastrophic.
Over nine months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, fuel clean water, and medicine.
SD/IRN