Qatar says sending Gaza additional 15 million liters of fuel
DOHA: Qatar announced on Wednesday it would send an additional 15 million liters of fuel to the war-battered Gaza Strip, where a fragile ceasefire has halted the Israel-Hamas war.
The small energy-rich Gulf country would be 'supplying the Gaza Strip with 15 million liters of fuel, bringing total Qatari fuel support to 30 million liters,' the official Qatar News Agency said.
A truce agreement brokered by Qatari, US and Egyptian mediators came into force on January 19, pausing fighting in the 15-month war that has devastated the Palestinian territory.
As the guns fell silent, humanitarian aid began pouring into Gaza, home to more than two million people, the vast majority of them displaced at least once by the war.
On January 20, Qatar said it would send 1.25 million liters of fuel per day to Gaza for 10 days.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, estimated in November that it needed some 160,000 liters of fuel per day for its basic humanitarian operations in Gaza.
The Israeli war on Gaza has caused a dire humanitarian crisis and the collapse of the already fragile health system in the besieged Palestinian territory.
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned in late December that restoring Gaza's health system would be 'a complex and difficult task.'
Hospitals in particular are short of fuel.
'Without fuel there are no humanitarian operations at all,' Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO's representative in the Palestinian Territories, said in late November.
Israel controls everything that enters or leaves the Gaza Strip, and has imposed restrictions on goods that it considers could be used for military purposes, including fuel.
The UN and aid groups have criticized the restrictions applied to humanitarian aid.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Asharq Al-Awsat
a day ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Without Meat, Families in Gaza Struggle to Celebrate Eid Al-Adha Holiday
With the Gaza Strip devastated by war and siege, Palestinians struggled Thursday to celebrate one of the most important Islamic holidays. To mark Eid al-Adha — Arabic for the Festival of Sacrifice — Muslims traditionally slaughter a sheep or cow and give away part of the meat to the poor as an act of charity. Then they have a big family meal with sweets. Children get gifts of new clothes. But no fresh meat has entered Gaza for three months. Israel has blocked shipments of food and other aid to pressure Hamas to release hostages taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that started the war. And nearly all the territory's homegrown sheep, cattle and goats are dead after 20 months of Israeli bombardment and ground offensives, said The Associated Press. Some of the little livestock left was on sale at a makeshift pen set up in the vast tent camp of Muwasi in the southern part of Gaza's Mediterranean coast. But no one could afford to buy. A few people came to look at the sheep and goats, along with a cow and a camel. Some kids laughed watching the animals and called out the prayers connected to the holiday. 'I can't even buy bread. No meat, no vegetables,' said Abdel Rahman Madi. 'The prices are astronomical.' But prices for everything have soared amid the blockade, which was only slightly eased two weeks ago. Meat and most fresh fruits and vegetables disappeared from the markets weeks ago. At a street market in the nearby city of Khan Younis, some stalls had stuffed sheep toys and other holiday knickknacks and old clothes. But most people left without buying any gifts after seeing the prices. 'Before, there was an Eid atmosphere, the children were happy ... Now with the blockade, there's no flour, no clothes, no joy,' said Hala Abu Nqeira, a woman looking through the market. 'We just go to find flour for our children. We go out every day looking for flour at a reasonable price, but we find it at unbelievable prices.' Israel's campaign against Hamas has almost entirely destroyed Gaza's ability to feed itself. The UN says 96% of the livestock and 99% of the poultry are dead. More than 95% of Gaza's prewar cropland is unusable, either too damaged or inaccessible inside Israeli military zones, according to a land survey published this week by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization. Israel barred all food and other supplies from entering Gaza for more than two months. It eased the blockade two weeks ago to allow a trickle of aid trucks in for the UN to distribute. The trucks have brought in some food items, mainly flour. But the UN says it has struggled to delivery much of the incoming aid because of looting or Israeli military restrictions. Almost the entire population of more than 2 million people have been driven from their homes, and most have had to move multiple times to escape Israeli offensives. Rasha Abu Souleyma said she recently slipped back to her home in Rafah — from which her family had fled to take refuge in Khan Younis — to find some possessions she'd left behind. She came back with some clothes, pink plastic sunglasses and bracelets that she gave to her two daughters as Eid gifts. 'I can't buy them clothes or anything,' the 38-year-old said. 'I used to bring meat in Eid so they would be happy, but now we can't bring meat, and I can't even feed the girls with bread.' Near her, a group of children played on makeshift swings made of knotted and looped ropes. Karima Nejelli, a displaced woman from Rafah, pointed out that people in Gaza had now marked both Eid al-Adha and the other main Islamic holiday, Eid al-Fitr, two times each under the war. 'During these four Eids, we as Palestinians did not see any kind of joy, no sacrifice, no cookies, no buying Eid clothes or anything.'
Al Arabiya
a day ago
- Al Arabiya
Suspect in Colorado Molotov cocktail attack on Jewish protest faces 118 counts
The suspect in a Molotov cocktail attack on a Jewish protest march in Colorado appeared in court Thursday facing more than 100 charges over an incident that injured 15 people. Mohamed Sabry Soliman is alleged to have thrown firebombs and sprayed burning gasoline at a group of people who had gathered Sunday in support of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Prosecutors now say 15 people—eight women and seven men—were hurt in the attack in the city of Boulder. Three are still hospitalized. The oldest victim was 88 years old. Soliman, a 45-year-old Egyptian who federal authorities said was in the country illegally after overstaying a tourist visa, faces 28 attempted murder charges, as well as a bevvy of other counts relating to his alleged use of violence. He also faces a count of animal cruelty for a dog that was hurt, bringing the total number of criminal counts to 118. Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty told reporters that Soliman could face a centuries-long prison term if convicted. 'The defendant is charged with attempted murder in the first degree as to 14 different victims,' he said. 'If the defendant is convicted and those sentences run consecutively, that would be 48 years in state prison for each of the 14 victims, which comes to 672 years.' Two of Soliman's alleged victims—along with the dog—were at the court on Thursday. Soliman is also expected to be charged with federal hate crime offenses. His immigration status has been at the center of President Donald Trump's administration's response to the attack. This week, his wife and five children were detained by immigration agents as the White House took to social media to taunt them about an impending deportation. 'Six one-way tickets for Mohamed's wife and five kids,' the official account posted on X. 'Final boarding call coming soon.' But on Wednesday, a judge imposed a temporary restraining order that bars any attempt to remove them from the country. Police who rushed to the scene of Sunday's attack found 16 unused Molotov cocktails and a backpack weed sprayer containing gasoline that investigators say Soliman had intended to use as a makeshift flamethrower. In bystander videos, the attacker can be heard screaming 'End Zionists!' and 'Killers!' Sunday's incident came less than two weeks after the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington, where a 31-year-old suspect, who shouted 'Free Palestine,' was arrested.
Arab News
a day ago
- Arab News
WHO urges ‘urgent protection' of key Gaza hospitals
GENEVA: The World Health Organization on Thursday called for the 'urgent protection' of two of the last hospitals remaining in the Gaza Strip, warning that the territory's health system is 'collapsing.' The WHO said the Nasser Medical Complex and Al-Amal Hospital risk becoming 'non-functional' because of restrictions on aid and access routes, further damaging a health system already battered by months of war. 'There are already no hospitals functioning in the north of Gaza. Nasser and Amal are the last two functioning public hospitals in Khan Younis, where currently most of the population is living,' the UN agency said in a statement on X. 'Without them, people will lose access to critical health services,' it said. The WHO added that closure of the two hospitals would eliminate 490 beds and reduce Gaza's hospital capacity to less than 1,400 beds — 40 percent below pre-war levels — for a population of two million people. The WHO said the hospitals have not been told to evacuate but lie within or just outside an Israeli-declared evacuation zone announced on June 2. Israeli authorities have told Gaza's health ministry that access routes to the two hospitals will be blocked, the WHO said. As a result, it will be 'difficult, if not impossible' for medical staff and new patients to reach them, it said. 'If the situation further deteriorates, both hospitals are at high risk of becoming non-functional, due to movement restrictions, insecurity, and the inability of WHO and partners to resupply or transfer patients,' the organization said. The WHO said both hospitals are already operating 'above their capacity,' with patients suffering life-threatening injuries arriving amid a 'dire shortage of essential medicines and medical supplies.' It warned the closure of Nasser and Al-Amal would have dire consequences for patients in need of surgical care, intensive care, blood bank and transfusion services, cancer care and dialysis. After nearly 20 months of war triggered by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Gaza is mired in one of the world's gravest humanitarian crises, with civilians enduring relentless bombardment, mass displacement and severe hunger.
