to report «iusnews»; The number of humanitarian staff killed while on duty in Gaza has risen to 31, after an Israeli airstrike killed seven civil defense members on Monday, according to a statement from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The statement added that Gaza is under “full electricity blackout” for the sixth day, warning of the repercussions on the healthcare system in the strip, CNN reported.
“Hospitals are on the brink of collapse as their fuel reserves used to operate backup generators have been almost totally depleted, endangering the lives of thousands of patients,” OCHA said.
Meanwhile, The World Health Organisation (WHO) said that over 110 attacks on health care facilities have been carried out by Israel, in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
The attacks have been recorded from the start of the war on October 7, until 15 October.
UNICEF-led WASH Cluster warned that the Gaza population is at “imminent risk of death or infectious disease outbreak” if water and fuel are not allowed to enter the strip.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office told CNN Sunday that Israel has restored water to the South of the strip, but the director of Gaza’s water authority disputed that Monday.
The government's media office in Gaza also warned that the strip is “on the brink of a real famine as goods in stores are running out, and no aid is coming to the displaced individuals”.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said in a statement that it provided bread to 107,192 internally displaced people in South Gaza on Sunday, but stressed the need for humanitarian aid to enter the strip.
“We urgently need access through all borders to replenish stocks & deliver assistance,” WFP added.
“Dehydration and waterborne diseases loom large, given the collapse of water and sanitation services. This includes the recent shutdown of Gaza's last functioning seawater desalination plant,” the United Nations relief agency in Gaza UNRWA said in a statement Tuesday.
On Monday, one line of water was open for three hours only in the South of the Gaza Strip, providing limited water to only half of the population of Khan Younis.
“This does not solve the urgent water needs in other parts of Khan Younis, the Middle Area and Rafah. Only 14 percent of the population in the Strip benefited from this three-hour opening of the water line," UNRWA said.
UNRWA added that Gaza requires 600,000 liters of fuel daily to operate water and desalination plants.
Fuel reserves at all Gaza hospitals are on the brink, it said, with only 24 hours of supply left. The failure of backup generators would endanger thousands of patients' lives.
