UNITED NATIONS, Oct 27 (NNN-XINHUA) – Only 62 trucks passed through the Rafa crossing into Gaza in the last four days, when 500 trucks a day was the pre-war average, UN humanitarians said yesterday.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said, the latest payloads of water, food and medical supplies ferried by the trucks from Egypt already were distributed to medical sites and the displaced in besieged Gaza.
“Fuel, which is desperately needed to run backup generators, remains banned by the Israeli authorities,” OCHA said. “As a result, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), has almost exhausted its fuel reserves and began to significantly reduce its operations.”
Lynn Hastings, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, issued a statement in which she said, the regime’s Defence Forces, continue to notify people in Gaza City that, those who stay in their homes will put themselves in danger.
She said that, advance warnings make no difference for people who can’t evacuate, because they have nowhere to go, or are unable to move.
“When the evacuation routes are bombed, when people north, as well as, south are caught up in hostilities, when the essentials for survival are lacking, and when there are no assurances for return, people are left with nothing but impossible choices,” Hastings said. “Nowhere is safe in Gaza now.”
The coordinator reminded that, the conduct of armed conflict anywhere else is governed by international humanitarian law, meaning that, civilians must be protected and have the essentials to survive, wherever they are and whether they choose to move or stay. But not here in Gaza.
“It also means that hostages, all hostages, must be released, immediately and unconditionally,” she said.
OCHA said, an estimated 1.4 million of the approximately two million people living in Gaza are internally displaced, with 629,000 sheltering in 150 UNRWA-designated emergency shelters. The average number of displaced people per shelter has now reached 2.7 times the designated capacity.
Water supply in areas south of Wadi Gaza, temporarily improved after UNRWA and the UN Children’s Fund delivered small quantities of fuel, retrieved from their existing reserves, to critical facilities. However, the available fuel in these facilities will be exhausted, likely quite soon, and the supply of piped water is expected to cease again, it said.
Wadi Gaza is a river valley and wetland cutting across the northern part of the Gaza Strip’s midsection.
