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UNITED NATIONS —Humanitarian assistance continued to trickle into the Gaza Strip on Monday, as 20 more aid trucks entered, but a lack of fuel for deliveries is threatening to halt the operation, as more than 2 million besieged Palestinians await help.
"Aid deliveries entering Gaza have not included fuel," U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters. "The U.N. Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, tells us that they will exhaust their fuel reserves within Gaza in the coming days."
Dujarric said fuel trucks are waiting on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, but he would not elaborate on why the trucks have not been a part of the three small convoys that have entered Gaza since Saturday.
"I don't want to go into all the details," Dujarric said. "What I can tell you is that we want to get fuel in. We haven't been able to get all the hurdles moved for us to get that fuel in."
The fuel is for UNRWA's operations. The agency is the largest supplier of aid in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. UNRWA's 13,000 mostly Palestinian staffers are continuing to assist more than a half-million displaced Palestinians but have warned that their stockpiles are nearly depleted.
"Without fuel, there will be no water, no functioning hospitals and bakeries," Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA's commissioner-general said on Sunday. "Without fuel, aid will not reach many civilians in desperate need. Without fuel, there will be no humanitarian assistance."
Israeli airstrikes on Gaza have taken a heavy toll on UNRWA. On Monday, the agency said 35 of its staff members have been confirmed killed since Israel launched its military strikes in response to the October 7 Hamas terror attack that killed 1,400 people in Israel. Forty UNRWA facilities, some sheltering displaced people, have been damaged. The Ministry of Health in Gaza says 4,651 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, 40% of whom are children.
Israel put Gaza under a complete siege following the Hamas attack. For two weeks, no food, water or medical supplies were allowed to enter. On Saturday, after many days of international negotiations, the first 20 trucks received the green light to enter. Fourteen more moved on Sunday. Monday's shipment brings to 54 the number of trucks that have brought relief supplies into Gaza, compared to around 450 trucks a day before the crisis.
Dujarric said when U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited the Rafah border crossing on Friday, he saw about 220 aid trucks waiting for permission to cross from the Egyptian side.
While the movement of supplies into Gaza has been welcomed from several capitals on Saturday, the U.N. says it is not nearly enough. The U.N. chief has called for a massive, sustained aid operation.