GENEVA: World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Thursday urged Israel to allow fuel to be taken into the Gaza Strip, alongside the first deliveries of water, food and medicine.
"We welcome Israel's announcement yesterday that it will not block the entry of water, food and medicines into Gaza from Egypt. Fuel is also needed for hospital generators, ambulances and desalination plants -- and we urge Israel to add fuel to the life-saving supplies allowed to enter Gaza," Tedros told a press conference.
Five trucks of medical supplies are ready at the border between Gaza and Egypt, the World Health Organization said on Thursday, welcoming Israel's announcement that it will not block the entry of aid into the Palestinian territory.
"Our trucks are loaded and ready to go," WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference. He said he hoped the supplies would be delivered as soon as the Rafah crossing opened, "hopefully tomorrow".
The delivery of aid is set to be the first after Israel said it would impose a "total blockade" on the narrow Gaza Strip that is home to 2.3 million people, cutting electricity supplies and halting flows of food and fuel, in response to a devastating attack from Hamas on Israeli territory on October 7.
There have also been heavy Israel air strikes in the war with Hamas. The UN has warned of a "humanitarian catastrophe".
Meanwhile, twenty truckloads of aid due to be transported over the Egyptian border are unlikely to raise spirits in the beleaguered Gaza Strip, where Palestinians are squarely focused on surviving Israeli air strikes and acute food and medicine shortages.
After intensive diplomacy, Egypt agreed to reopen its border crossing with Gaza to allow aid to reach Palestinians, the US said, as the humanitarian crisis worsened for the 2.3 million people trapped there and anti-Israel protests flared across the Middle East.
"About the aid, this is something frivolous, we want nothing from Arab and foreign countries except to stop the violent bombardment on our houses," said El Awad El Dali, 65, speaking near the rubble of ruined homes.
Like many Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere he feels Arab states have not done enough to support the Palestinian cause, especially those who have normalised ties with Israel.
"We want them to stop the bombardment on people who are getting killed inside their houses," he said.
The United States and Egypt have been pushing for a deal with Israel to get aid delivered to Gaza, and the White House said on Wednesday it had been agreed for up to 20 trucks to pass through the Rafah crossing from Egypt in the coming days, with hopes for more trucks later.
- Reuters/AFP
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