There is 'deliberate attempt' to 'paralyse' our work in Gaza, says UN agency
UNRWA
The chief of the United Nations Relief Works Agency for Palestinian refugees in the NearEast (UNRWA) said on Thursday (November 16) that there was a 'deliberate attempt' to 'strangle' and 'paralyse' the agency's work in Gaza. He warned that the UNRWA may be forced to fully suspend its work because of lack of fuel.
UNRWA supports more than 800,000 displaced people in the Gaza Strip. It said that many of the services it supported have shut down. These include dozens of water wells, two water plants and sewage pumping stations.
"I do believe there is a deliberate attempt to strangle our operation and paralyse the operation," UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told journalists in Geneva.
"We run the risk of having to suspend the entire humanitarian operation," he said. "I do believe that it is outrageous that humanitarian agencies have been reduced to begging for fuel."
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Lazzarini said that for weeks, the agency has made pleas for fuel, which was carried into Gaza for the first time on Wednesday since the war began.
Lazzarini said that the 24,000 litres of diesel fuel meant for UN aid trucks is inadequate compared to what Gazans need to survive.
"Because of the lack of fuel, we will not be able to send our trucks across the south of the Gaza Strip where we have people waiting for humanitarian deliveries," he said.
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Israel has blockaded the Gaza Strip and even opposes fuel imports in the Palestinian enclave saying it can be used by Hamas.
"Today what we are saying is if the fuel does not come in, people will start to die because of the lack of fuel. Exactly as from when, I don’t know. But it will be sooner rather than later," he said.
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Paltel and Jawwal, the main telecommunication companies in Gaza have said that all telecom services in the strip have now stopped because of the depletion of all energy sources.
"It can provoke or accelerate (the breakdown of) the last remaining civil order we have in the Gaza Strip," Lazzarini said of the blackout, calling the scale of loss and destruction in Gaza "just staggering."
(With inputs from agencies)