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The U.N. said Wednesday that Israeli authorities have denied 29 of its 35 attempts to access fuel stocks in Rafah since April 13, warning that the lack of fuel threatens to collapse critical infrastructure across the Gaza Strip.
Citing the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq warned at a news conference that "the shortage of accessible fuel could force more health, water, and sanitation facilities to shut down."
"This could affect the most basic of programs. Vaccines, for one, require fuel for cold chain systems," he said, as he also raised the alarm over the growing risk of losing vital communication lines.
"Yet our attempts to access available stocks of fuel in Rafah continue to be rejected," he said, noting that Israel on Monday alone denied 12 of 24 U.N. coordination requests to carry out humanitarian operations in Gaza.
These included missions to truck potable water to vulnerable populations in northern Gaza, retrieve critical nutrition and fuel supplies, and repair key roads in the south, Haq said.
"Between 13 April and this past Monday, 29 out of 35 attempts were denied by the Israeli authorities. This morning’s mission was also denied," he noted.
"International humanitarian law is crystal clear: If the population is inadequately supplied with the essentials for their survival, Israel must agree to humanitarian relief and facilitate it by all the means at its disposal," said OCHA in a statement.
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