The UN's agency for Palestinian refugees has warned that dwindling fuel supplies in Gaza could force it to stop aid operations, saying that without immediate access to energy, there were "huge humanitarian implications" for those under Israeli bombardment in Gaza.

After 19 days of airstrikes and shelling by Israel's military and a near-total land, sea and air blockade of the Palestinian territory, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said their work and capabilities to supply essential services in Gaza were at breaking point. Juliette Touma, director of communications for UNRWA's Palestinian refugee agency, said that if their workers in Palestine did not get fuel urgently, they would have stop operations that are vital to hundreds of thousands of displaced Gazans. 

"Our fuel supplies are running out and if we do not get an urgent shipment of fuel in the coming hours tonight, then tomorrow we will have to make some really tough decisions with regards to cuts in our humanitarian response," Touma told CGTN Europe via a video call from Jordan's Amman. 

READ MORE:

EXPLAINER: What happens when the fuel runs out in Gaza?

Israel's biggest Gaza ground raid, Biden doubts Palestinian death toll

Gaza aid set to stop over fuel supply as row erupts over UN's Guterres

While the first batches of aid started to enter Gaza last weekend, Israel has continued to stop any fuel being taken into the territory because it says it could have military uses. Due to damage from the conflict or lack of fuel, one third of hospitals and nearly two-thirds of primary healthcare clinics have already been shut down in Gaza, while on Wednesday, Touma's agency said it would also have to start closing its vital facilities due to shortages.

The UN's 150 facilities in Gaza are among the few places Palestinians can safely head to amid the enclave's almost constant bombardment, with nearly 600,000 internally displaced people relying on their services in the Strip. With some shelters currently hosting 10 to 12 times more people than their designed capacity, overcrowding was already a serious concern, even before fuel supplies started running low.

"The needs of those people are huge," said Touma, adding that the situation was going from bad to worse "by the hour." "People continue to flee. People continue to come to our shelters. The numbers are increasing. Our own staff have become displaced themselves," she said.

It's not only their homes that many aid workers have lost: scores of the UN employees in Gaza have also been killed and injured in Israel's bombing campaign, with six killed in just 24 hours in Gaza on Tuesday. "We have lost 38 colleagues of ours who work with UNRWA. Half of them were teachers in UN schools," says Touma. 

Working under such conditions, getting other vital aid into Gaza – such as food, water, and medical supplies – continues to be dangerous, laborious and a slow process, with strict checks on all aid trucks entering the enclave. "Just over 60 trucks of humanitarian supplies have crossed over in the past four days. However, it is a drop in the ocean of overwhelming needs of people," says Touma. "It is only 1 percent of what Gaza used to get before the war began and so it is by far not enough."

Gaza's 2.3 million people were already suffering from widespread poverty and high unemployment over years of Israeli and Egyptian blockades before Israel began bombarding its Palestinian neighbor in response to the Hamas assault three weeks ago. According to the UN, even prior to the conflict, some 80 percent of Gaza's inhabitants were relying on international aid, meaning that the knock-on effect of almost no access to basic supplies is even more acute amid the worst bombing of the Strip in decades.

However, the blockade of fuel deliveries has a particularly poignant effect. Not only does it mean that medical facilities are unable to function, including the ambulances used to transport the wounded; in Gaza, making water drinkable relies on fuel. All five wastewater treatment plants and two of the three desalination plants have stopped working. The last remaining major desalination plant, which had been closed for a week, resumed operations at the weekend, but is at less than 7 percent of its usual capacity. 

Amid an increasingly desperate need for shelter, water, food and medical services, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said on Thursday in The Hague that Israel needs to agree to a full ceasefire in Gaza in order enable unimpeded deliveries of emergency aid. Meanwhile, world powers failed at the UN Security Council on Wednesday to agree on a resolution to seek a lull in the fighting to deliver meaningful amounts of aid.

"[Our] convoys have not contained fuel," says Touma, stressing that action had to be taken immediately to avert catastrophe. "Fuel is running out and it's running out fast, with huge humanitarian implications on people in need in Gaza's communities... It's very, very bad."

Subscribe to Storyboard: A weekly newsletter bringing you the best of CGTN every Friday