By Xinhua,
Gaza : The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees said on Saturday suspension of food aid deliveries to refugees in the Gaza Strip will not last for long.
“From our experience, I don’t think this issue will last for long because there are urgent intensive communications with the Israeli side on all levels,” UNRWA spokesman Adnan Abu Hassna told Voice of Palestine radio.
“There are promises that this problem would be resolved very soon,” he said.
But Abu Hassna warned of “more consequences” if the efforts did not succeed because the refugees “don’t have anything and they largely depend on the aid delivered by the UNRWA.”
On Thursday, the UNRWA halted distributing food to 650,000 Palestinians in Gaza due to the lack of fuel.
The suspension was only applied to the food deliveries, he said, adding other aid services such as education and health will be kept offered. “But we still have a problem. Many teachers, students, doctors and nurses go to their places of work on foot.”
After the Islamic Hamas movement took control of the Gaza Stripin June last year, Israel imposed a tightened blockade on the enclave and closed all its border crossings, except for humanitarian needs of food, fuel and medicine into Gaza.
Israel completely withheld fuel shipments on April 9 when Palestinian militants attacked Nahal Oz crossing, the only terminal to pipe fuel into Gaza, in an effort to pressure the militants to halt rocket attacks into Israel.
The Jewish nation, however, argued that Palestinian gas companies, pressured by Gaza ruler Hamas, refused to receive the fuel shipments to show the world there was a disaster.