By Nadine Osman
London, (The Muslim News): The United Nations has warned that children in the Gaza Strip may begin dying of thirst if Israel’s blockade on fuel imports continues, as the humanitarian crisis deepens amid a widening regional conflict.
“Fuel, to state the obvious, is essential to produce, treat, and distribute water to more than 2 million people living inside Gaza,” UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters on Tuesday. “UNICEF warns that if the current more than 100-day blockade on fuel coming into Gaza does not end, children may begin to die of thirst.”
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, at least 56,077 Palestinians have been killed since Israel’s military offensive began in October 2023. In the past 24 hours alone, 79 bodies were recovered, and 289 people were injured, bringing the total number of injuries to 131,848. The ministry also warned that “many victims are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them.”
The UN has reported increasing restrictions and attacks on humanitarian operations. Dujarric said there were “reports of people coming under fire near non-UN militarized distribution sites on routes designated by Israeli authorities for the United Nations to collect trucks carrying aid.”
On Monday, six of 14 planned humanitarian movements were denied by Israeli authorities, including efforts to deliver water and retrieve bodies. A mission to retrieve stored fuel from Rafah was completed, allowing critical services in southern Gaza to temporarily resume. “That fuel is being allocated to run critical services in the south, thereby buying us some more time,” said Dujarric. “However, unless fuel is actually delivered inside Gaza, these lifelines will very quickly shut down.” “If our life-saving operations shut down, people will not be able to survive,” he warned.
Trump slams Israel as intelligence casts doubt over his Iran strikes
As the regional conflict widens, US President Donald Trump publicly criticised Israel, accusing it of violating the ceasefire with Iran and urging it to halt airstrikes. “Bring your pilots home now!” he said. Trump also claimed it was a “great honour” to have “destroyed” Iran’s nuclear facilities and to have ended the war that Israel launched on June 13.
Tensions between Iran and Israel flared further this week, with Iran launching missiles at a US military base in Qatar on Monday. The attack came in response to strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites by the US a day earlier.
Iranian authorities report over 430 deaths, including 13 children, and more than 3,500 wounded since Israel’s latest assault. Israeli officials say at least 28 people have been killed in Iranian retaliatory strikes.
Despite Trump’s claims of a successful strike on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, a US intelligence assessment cited by CNN suggests otherwise. “The US set them back maybe a few months, tops,” said a source familiar with the findings, adding that the core components of Iran’s nuclear programme remain intact.
Trump had previously described the attack as a “spectacular” success, boasting that Iran’s nuclear sites had been “obliterated.”
Iran signals openness to diplomacy
In a potential shift toward de-escalation, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian expressed his country’s willingness to pursue a diplomatic resolution with the United States.
Iranian state television reported that Pezeshkian spoke by phone with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday.
“We hope that negotiations between Iran and the US will begin soon and lead to a positive outcome,” he told bin Salman.
Pezeshkian stressed that Iran seeks fair agreements within international legal frameworks that protect its rights and promote regional stability. “We have no demands beyond our rightful entitlements and welcome any support from friendly and brotherly nations in resolving these matters,” he added.
[Photo: Palestinians search for survivals and bodies in the rubble after the Israeli army targeted a house belonging to the Dehdouh family in the Shujaiyya neighborhood, east of Gaza City, Gaza, killing eight people on June 25, 2025. Following the attack, local residents recovered the bodies of three people from beneath the debris. Photojournalist: Hamza Z. H. Qraiqea/AA]
