UN aid agencies say they have begun to significantly reduce their operations in the Gaza Strip because they have almost exhausted their fuel reserves.
Small quantities of fuel retrieved from existing reserves are being used to maintain the water supply in the south, where hundreds of thousands of people are sheltering from Israeli strikes.
However, they will run out on Thursday.
The agencies say they have reduced their support for overwhelmed hospitals and bakeries feeding the displaced.
“What we are seeing in the Gaza Strip is unprecedented,” Juliette Touma of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, told the BBC.
“Two million people are being strangled. Gaza is being choked with very, very little assistance that is coming from outside.”
Israel began its bombing campaign in Gaza, cut off electricity and most water, and stopped imports of food, fuel and other goods in retaliation for a cross-border attack by Hamas on 7 October, in which at least 1,400 people were killed and 224 taken hostage.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says 7,000 people have been killed in the territory since then and that its health system is facing total collapse, with a third of hospitals not functioning and the rest only treating emergency cases.
At least 74 lorries carrying food, water and medical supplies have crossed from Egypt via the Rafah border crossing since Saturday, which Ms Touma called “a drop in the ocean of overwhelming needs”. About 500 lorries were allowed into Gaza every day before the start of the war.
Israel refuses to allow deliveries of fuel because it says it could be used for military purposes by Hamas, which it classes as a terrorist organisation – as do the UK, US and other powers.
But Ms Touma said Unrwa urgently needed fuel if it was to continue to serve as a lifeline for the 629,000 displaced people taking refuge inside its facilities. Most fled homes in the north of Gaza after being told by the Israeli military to leave for their own safety.
“We’re the largest humanitarian organisation and we are on the verge of stopping operations. We are being banned from undertaking the mandate that was entrusted to us by the UN General Assembly. All we’re asking to do is to be able to do our work,” she added.
