The United Nations Humanitarian Fund in the occupied Palestinian territories has approved the allocation of 500000 dollars to buy emergency fuel for the Gaza Strip hospitals to maintain the delivery of the basic health services.
UN Coordinator for Humanitarian Aid and Development Activities Robert Piper expressed concern over the deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip calling on the Israeli and Palestinian authorities and the international community to take urgent measures to ensure the provision of the basic health services to the Gazan people.
“The provision of the basic services will soon cease due to the power cuts which last for 20 hours a day and the depletion of the emergency fuel supplies” Piper said.
A statement by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories (OCHA) mentioned that the long-standing deficit in the electricity sector was due to the restrictions imposed by Israel with its ten-year land air and sea blockade.
The statement noted that the Gaza Ministry of Health expects the fuel supplies used to operate generators in seven hospitals out of the 13 hospitals of the Gaza Strip to run out within three days.
The residents of apartments in high buildings in Gaza have already stopped getting water on a regular basis because of the lack of the power needed to operate the water pumps.
Meanwhile about 110 million liters of raw or poorly treated wastewater is discharged into the Mediterranean Sea due to the lack of the power needed to treat wastewater.
