Geneva, Oct. 19, (dpa/GNA) – The lack of fuel in the Gaza Strip is having devastating consequences, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The small amount left has to be divided among desalination plants to provide water, bakeries to bake bread and hospitals that have to care for a growing number of patients.
“Unless supplies are allowed very soon, there will be a tragedy in Gaza, that is our fear,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva on Thursday. He appealed to Israel to allow fuel deliveries.
Israel has only authorized deliveries of drinking water, food and medicine after almost two weeks of a total blockade of Gaza. Dozens of trucks are parked outside the Rafah border crossing, but Egypt has so far kept it closed. The WHO is hoping for an opening on Friday.
“The fuel situation is extremely serious,” said Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative in the Israeli-occupied territories. All hospitals were no longer fully operational for lack of fuel, he said.
The last rations would allow the four hospitals in the Israeli-designated evacuation zone in the north of the Gaza Strip to operate on an emergency basis for one or two days. There are more than 2,000 patients there who have nowhere to go, Peeperkorn said.
GNA