Third aid convoy enters Gaza as UN warns fuel about to run out

A third convoy of humanitarian aid trucks delivered water, food and medicine to the besieged Gaza Strip on Monday, but the United Nations warned that fuel was not included and reserves will run out within two days.

Humanitarian deliveries through the Rafah crossing from Egypt began on Saturday after wrangling over procedures for inspecting the aid and bombardments on the Gaza side of the border had left relief materials stranded in Egypt.

“The United States remains committed to ensuring that civilians in Gaza will continue to have access to food, water, medical care, and other assistance, without diversion by Hamas,” US President Joe Biden posted on X.

Rafah is the main crossing in and out of Gaza that does not border Israel. Since Israel has imposed a “total siege” of the enclave in retaliation for an attack by Hamas militants on October 7, Rafah has become the focus of efforts to deliver aid.

Twenty trucks entered Gaza via Rafah on Monday, taking the total to 54 trucks since Saturday, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

The UN said no fuel would mean a water desalination plant could not function along with bakeries and hospitals.

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UN officials say about 100 aid trucks would be needed daily to meet essential needs in Gaza, which is home to 2.3 million people. Some 1.4 million of those are now homeless.

A US special envoy is negotiating with Israel, Egypt and the United Nations to create a “sustained delivery mechanism” to get aid into Gaza after aid convoys began crossing into the strip from Egypt.

“We want to see sustained traffic going through Rafah delivering humanitarian assistance,” said US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on Monday, adding that the “exact mechanism” of how to do that was under discussion.

According to the Israeli military, Hamas was denying hospitals in the Gaza Strip fuel that it had stockpiled.

“Hamas has stockpiled more than 1M Liters of fuel in Gaza, but is not providing it to hospitals in need. Hamas is accountable for the suffering in Gaza, not Israel,” Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus said on X.

In an interview with US news network CNN, which Conricus linked to his X profile, he said that Hamas had 1,000 litres of fuel, rather than 1 million.

Miller said the possible diversion of fuel by Hamas was an “issue that we are discussing now with Israeli authorities”.

Dujarric said the United Nations was pushing for fuel deliveries so the UN agency providing aid to Palestinians in Gaza, UNRWA, could continue operating.

“They can see the bottom of the fuel tank,” Dujarric said of UNRWA. “We’re talking days. And when that happens, that will be truly devastating, on top of what is already a devastating humanitarian situation.”

Additional reporting by dpa