GENEVA — The head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency said Thursday he believed there
was a deliberate attempt to "strangle" its humanitarian work in
Gaza, warning that the agency may have to entirely suspend its
operations due to a lack of fuel.
"I do believe there is a deliberate attempt to strangle our operation and paralyze the operation," UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told journalists in Geneva, calling it "outrageous" to force humanitarian aid agencies to beg for fuel.
He added that the agency, which supports more than 800,000 displaced people in Gaza, was at risk of suspending its operations entirely.
Lazzarini said the organization had pleaded for weeks for access to fuel, which on Wednesday was carried into Gaza for the first time since the start of Israel's war with Hamas.
That fuel — 24,000 liters (6,340 gallons) of diesel fuel for UN aid distribution trucks — is nowhere near what Gazans need to survive, Lazzarini said.
"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.
Gaza's main telecommunications companies, Paltel and Jawwal, said Thursday that all telecom services in the densely populated enclave had gone out of service as all energy sources have been depleted.
"It can provoke or accelerate [the breakdown of] the last remaining civil order we have in the Gaza Strip," Lazzarini said of the blackout, who said the scale of loss and destruction in Gaza was "just staggering."
"If this completely breaks down we will have difficulties operating in an environment without a minimum of order."
was a deliberate attempt to "strangle" its humanitarian work in
Gaza, warning that the agency may have to entirely suspend its
operations due to a lack of fuel.
"I do believe there is a deliberate attempt to strangle our
operation and paralyze the operation,"...