UN Requires $4.5 Million to Pay for Fuel in Gaza Strip

TEHRAN (Defapress)- UN political chief Rosemary Di Carlo made the announcement on Wednesday while addressing the Security Council during its monthly meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, presstv reported.

Di Carlo added that she "deeply concerned that funding for UN emergency fuel, which sustains some 250 critical facilities in Gaza, has now run out."

She said around $4.5 million was required to insure fuel for hospitals, water plants and other critical facilities in the Gaza Strip until the end of the year.

She also voiced concern over a "dangerously short supply of essential medicines" in the Gaza Strip, noting that stocks were 40 percent depleted.

The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli blockade since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in the standard of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty.

The UN undersecretary general for political affairs also stressed that the recent escalations of violence in the region "threatened to plunge Gaza into war".

Tensions have been running high near the Gaza fence since March 30, which marked the start of a series of protests demanding the right to return for the Palestinians driven out of their homeland.

The Gaza clashes reached their peak on May 14, marking the 70th anniversary of the Nakba Day (the Day of Catastrophe), which this year coincided with the US embassy relocation from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem al-Quds.

Nearly 180 Palestinians have been killed and over 18,000 others wounded in the fresh wave of violence, according to the latest figures released by the Palestinian Health Ministry.

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