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Fuel now the most vital commodity in Gaza amid fears of health care collapse
Fuel is essential to bring water, food and health care to Gazans in dire need, but supplies have not been provided in aid convoys to date, UN humanitarians warned on Tuesday.
Since Saturday 21 October, three convoys of humanitarian supplies have reached the Gaza Strip from Egypt, a total of 54 trucks. “This breakthrough came after two weeks of full siege with no water, no medical supplies, no humanitarian supplies, no food and no fuel going in,” Tamara Alrifai, spokesperson of the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) told reporters in Geneva.
Without fuel, “trucks cannot move and generators cannot produce electricity for hospitals, bakeries and water desalination plants,” stressed Ms. Alrifai.
The 54 aid trucks contained a mix of food, medical supplies and non-food items. They are a small fraction of the 500 trucks that used to enter Gaza every day before Hamas’s deadly and unprecedented 7 October incursion into Israel, including commercial trucks and at least 100 aid trucks, some 45 of them carrying fuel. “We see that the trucks that have come in so far are just a trickle in the face of the immense needs of people in Gaza,” she emphasized.
Echoing those concerns, the UN health agency WHO warned that as hostilities continue, Gaza’s health system is disintegrating. “One third of hospitals now are non-functioning just at the time when the medical burden is enormous. Around two thirds of clinics are non-functional,” said Dr. Rick Brennan, WHO Emergencies Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Region.
Some WHO medicines and supplies from the three convoys allowed into the enclave through the Rafah crossing last Saturday have already been delivered to three key referral hospitals in southern Gaza and to the Palestine Red Crescent Society. But the UN health agency remains unable to distribute essential health supplies to key hospitals in northern Gaza due to the lack of security guarantees.
Awaiting WHO supplies are some of “the most important health centers in Gaza such as Al-Shifa hospital, which has a bed occupancy rate of 150 per cent, and the Turkish Hospital, which is the main provider of services for cancer patients. “We do not have security guarantees to deliver that aid,” explained Dr. Brennan.
WHO calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, for protected humanitarian operations so these supplies can be delivered safely.
With 1.4 million displaced people across the territory - almost two thirds of Gaza's population-, overcrowding combined with poor sanitation and lack of access to clean water is a major challenge to the health system. Briefing reporters from Cairo, Dr. Brennan said “there's only between one and three litres of clean water per person per day available to the displaced right now. And by international standards, we would expect at the bare minimum 15 litres per person per day.”
As people turn to contaminated water, the UN health agency fears that the spread of infectious diseases is just a matter of time. Respiratory tract infections and cases of diarrhoea are already on the rise growing but chicken pox and skin infections including scabies and head lice are also expected.
More than 5,000 people are reported to have been killed across Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, since Israel began its bombardment in response to the Hamas attack, in which at least 1,400 people were killed and 222 taken hostage.
Story: Gaza: humanitarian situation and aid – UNRWA, WHO
Speakers:
- Tamara Alrifai, UNRWA Director of External Relations and Communications (from Amman)
- Dr. Rick Brennan, WHO Regional Emergencies, Director for Eastern Mediterranean Region (from Cairo)
TRT: 2’44”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 24 Oct. 2023 - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
Geneva press briefing
SHOTLIST
- Exterior wide shot: UN flag alley UN Geneva.
- Cutaway: wide shot, press room, UN Geneva.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Tamara Alrifai, UNRWA Director of External Relations and Communications: “Since the 21st of October, three convoys of humanitarian supplies have gone into the Strip with a total of 54 trucks. This breakthrough came after two weeks of full, full siege of the Gaza Strip with no water, no medical supplies, no humanitarian supplies, no food and no fuel going in.”
- Cutaway: wide shot, press room with journalists, UN Geneva.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Tamara Alrifai, UNRWA Director of External Relations and Communications: “Almost more important than anything else is fuel. So far, fuel has not been allowed into the Strip. Fuel is extremely urgent because without fuel, the trucks themselves cannot move. Without fuel, the generators cannot produce electricity for hospitals, for bakeries and for the water desalination plants.”
- Cutaway: close up shot of journalist in the press room, UN Geneva.
- SOUNDBTE (ENGLISH) Tamara Alrifai, UNRWA Director of External Relations and Communications: “We see that the trucks that have come in so far are just a trickle in the face of the immense needs of people on the Strip.”
- Cutaway: wide shot, press room with journalists, UN Geneva.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Dr. Rick Brennan, WHO Regional Emergencies, Director for Eastern Mediterranean Region: “One third of hospitals now are non-functioning just at the time when the medical burden is enormous. Around two thirds of clinics are non-functional.”
- Cutaway: medium shot, press room with journalists, UN Geneva.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Dr. Rick Brennan, WHO Regional Emergencies, Director for Eastern Mediterranean Region: “We keep getting asked are we delivering to the biggest hospital in Gaza, that's al-Shifa hospital in the north, which already has a center, has a bed occupancy rate of 150 per cent. We've been asked if we've been able to deliver to the Turkish hospital, which is perhaps the biggest provider of cancer services in Gaza. The answer is no. The answer is no because we do not have security guarantees to deliver that aid.”
- Cutaway: wide shot, press room with journalists, UN Geneva.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Dr. Rick Brennan, WHO Regional Emergencies, Director for Eastern Mediterranean Region: “We understand there's only between one and three liters of clean water per person per day available to the displaced right now. And by international standards, we would expect at the bare minimum 15 liters per person per day.”
- Various shots of press conference room, UN Geneva.
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As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
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- Water storage on Earth’s land surface has decreased in past decade
- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
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