The Palestinian refugee agency says humanitarian work is at breaking point as the Israeli siege cuts off access to fuel.
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said it would be forced to suspend its humanitarian work in the Gaza Strip within 48 hours as the Israeli siege restricts access to much-needed fuel.
In a social media post on Monday, Thomas White, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, said fuel was not being allowed into Gaza for more than a month, while humanitarian conditions reach critical levels.
“The humanitarian operation in Gaza will stop in the next 48 hours as no fuel is allowed into Gaza,” White wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
As Israel continues to hit Gaza with airstrikes as part of a ground offensive on the territory, a siege cutting off access to food, electricity and fuel has overwhelmed organizations trying to help people displaced and injured by the fighting.
Palestinian authorities said Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed at least 11,240 people, including more than 4,600 children, since fighting began on October 7, when the Palestinian armed group Hamas carried out an attack on southern Gaza. Israel which killed around 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities. authorities.
The UN announced on Monday that 101 Gaza workers had been killed since the fighting began.
In Gaza, where the health system is under strain, the collapse of medical and communications services has blocked the death toll since November 10.
Palestinian doctors have pleaded that hospitals are running out of fuel, leaving them unable to save patients, including newborns in incubators, because electricity generators no longer work.
Israeli forces closed in on al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza, with medical staff and at least 650 patients trapped inside. Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said 32 patients died in the past three days due to a power shortage.
Israel says the hospital sits atop a tunnel complex used by Hamas, a charge the group denies.
“The tanks are in front of the hospital. We are under total blockade. It is a completely civilian area. Only hospital facilities, inpatients, doctors and other civilians remain in the hospital. Someone should stop this,” surgeon Dr Ahmed El Mokhallalati told Reuters.
He added that Israel had bombed water tanks, wells and water pumps for the hospital and that those who remained were “barely surviving.”
Authorities also warned that conditions created by the bombing and siege could lead to the outbreak of disease, with access to clean water severely restricted.
“This morning, two of our major water contractors stopped working – they simply ran out of fuel – which will leave 200,000 people without safe drinking water,” White said.
Mansour Shouman, a displaced Palestinian who fled northern Gaza and sought shelter at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, told Al Jazeera that conditions at the site were “primitive”.
“Let’s leave aside food and water, electricity, fuel. There is no security, there is no security,” he said. “We were told, ‘Go south, you’ll be safe there.’ However, every day I hear more and more ambulances arriving at the hospital. I see more and more people taking their loved ones to the cemetery.