Fuel is the blood that has stopped flowing in the broken body of the Gaza Strip. More than anything else, it is in desperately low supply, as a result of Israel's near-total blockade of the enclave. Since the start of the war on October 7, the generators that supply buildings with electricity have been gradually shutting down. The only way to escape Gaza City is on foot or on donkey-drawn carts – which are becoming rare and expensive. Ambulances have stopped running in recent days, and all but one of the city's hospitals have ground to a halt.

Some civilians have saved a few liters of fuel in the bottom of their car tanks to recharge a battery, to which neighbors connect a dozen telephones so as not to be cut off from the world. On November 16, Gaza's telephone network went down for the fourth time, after the generators powering the operators' data and connection centers ran out of fuel. The fall rains began five days ago. Displaced people in Khan Yunis, in the south, spread plastic sheeting over their makeshift camp while looking for the winter clothes they were unable to take with them when they fled.

On Friday, November 17, Israel agreed to the passage of four tanker trucks into the enclave via Egypt, at the cost of political commotion. But the aid provided is a drop in the bucket, even according to Israeli National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi. Washington and the Israeli army and domestic intelligence all recommended that the government make this exclusive concession to United Nations agencies so that they could keep the desalination and wastewater treatment plants running at minimum capacity. Without these, the massive health crisis into which Gaza is already sinking would have accelerated sharply and hampered the military operation.

The promised gasoline will also be used to power telephone operators, because the UN says it cannot distribute aid without communication from those in Gaza.

On Wednesday, one tanker truck was allowed to pass the Rafah border crossing so that UN vehicles could deliver water and food, which are also crossing the border in minimal quantities (10% of requirements since October 7, nothing in the past three days). The UN transports them to its schools, where those in Gaza seek refuge from the bombardments which have left 71 dead, out of a total of over 11,000, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health.

At Gaza's Al Shifa hospital, where the army continues its search for Hamas tunnels, 36 patients and four premature babies have died since November 11 due to a lack of petrol and electricity to power the machines keeping them alive, according to the hospital director.

You have 40% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.