Today's Edition
ISIDORA CIRIC (ABU DHABI)
Nearly half of Gaza's population is now resorting to burning rubbish to cook food, as ongoing aggression and blocked aid supplies cripple the territory's fuel supply and push families to desperate measures to survive, humanitarian agencies have warned.
"Rising prices in fuel since regional escalations began are seriously impacting people in Gaza, many of whom are finding it difficult to find the means with which to feed their families," UNRWA reported on Monday.
Fuel is essential to run the generators on which Gazans depend to cook, pump water, refrigerate medicines and communicate, the agency added, leaving households and aid providers exposed when supplies run low.
Earlier in April, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that cooking gas shortages have forced 48% of the Gazan population to rely on unsafe waste burning for meal preparation, with at least 130 metric tonnes of gas needed daily to meet demand.
According to the Gaza Chamber of Commerce, only 42 truckloads of cooking gas entered Gaza between March 9 and March 22, enough to provide tightly rationed amounts of 8 kilogrammes per household to about 109,000 families.
OCHA added that the shortage has also weakened the work of community kitchens, which remain one of the few lifelines for displaced and impoverished families, warning that cooking gas supplies entering Gaza cover only a fraction of daily demand.
Restricted Access Chokes Gaza's Lifelines
The warning comes as aid agencies report that ongoing aid restrictions are feeding a wider collapse of basic services across the enclave, where damage to healthcare facilities, water infrastructure and roads has left families with fewer ways to cope.
For the fifth consecutive week, aid workers have relied solely on the Kerem Shalom Crossing for stock replenishment, as the Zikim Crossing in the north remains closed. The closure, OCHA said, has reduced the volume of aid entering Gaza and forced supplies intended for northern areas to be rerouted through the south - a slower, more expensive journey that depends on scarce fuel and movement along a road network of which 77%has been damaged.
Médecins Sans Frontières said on Friday it had been unable to bring any medical supplies into Gaza since January 1, with trucks carrying food and medicine waiting outside the enclave but blocked from entry by Israeli authorities.
The restrictions were now being felt daily in its hospitals and clinics, where almost 50% of essential chronic disease medicines - including treatments for diabetes, hypertension, thyroid conditions and asthma - are running critically low.
Damage to the electricity line serving the Southern Gaza Desalination Plant in Khan Younis, meanwhile, has slashed drinking water production to barely 20% of capacity, leaving an estimated 500,000 people with reduced access to safe water in Deir al Balah and northern Khan Younis, according to OCHA.
Though the line was repaired on March 31, the plant had been forced to operate on backup generators since a strike on March 25, reducing output from 16,000 cubic metres daily to just 2,500 cubic metres.
