Fuel has been transported to Gaza via tanker for the first time in the five weeks since the conflict between Hamas and Israel commenced.
A senior UN official stated that 2,060 gallons (5,060 litres) of petroleum had been delivered via the Rafah border crossing in Egypt.
However, he cautioned that its utilisation was limited by Israeli authorities to aid transportation into Gaza, and that none of them could be harnessed to power water pumps or hospitals.
Israel has obstructed all fuel shipments on the grounds that Hamas could steal the petroleum and use it for military purposes.
Following a request from the United States government, an Israeli defence ministry entity announced that it had consented to the refuelling of UN aid trucks.
Hours after Israeli troops raided Al-Shifa, the largest hospital in Gaza, which has been the site of days of fighting and adjacent airstrikes, the decision was made.
A "humanitarian catastrophe" has been declared by the United Nations and 11,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the health ministry, which is controlled by Hamas.
Unrwa, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees that operates the main humanitarian operation in Gaza, announced on Tuesday that it could no longer unload or distribute aid from lorries that arrived in Rafah due to a lack of fuel.
While the United Nations will be able to refuel its vehicles as of Wednesday's delivery, Israel has prohibited the organisation from using any of the fuel to provide essential services to the 1.5 million people who have fled their homes.
More than half of these individuals are currently seeking refuge in Unrwa facilities.
Thomas White, the chief of the organisation in Gaza, stated that 23,000 litres was merely 9 percent of the daily amount required to sustain life-saving operations. He demanded that aid "be delivered based on need, not on conditions set by parties to a conflict."
Mr. White previously reported that ten water pumps and all three sewage pumps in the southern town of Rafah had ceased operations due to fuel depletion, as had the desalinization facility in the neighbouring city of Khan Younis.
In addition, all operations at Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis have been halted with the exception of emergency situations, and twenty-four ambulances have been removed from service.
Numerous health, water, and sanitation facilities throughout the Strip have been compelled to cease operations as a result of petroleum scarcity, infrastructure damage, acts of aggression, and prevailing insecurity.
According to the United Nations, Palestinian telecommunications companies have also stated that they anticipate turning off phone and internet services on Thursday due to a paucity of fuel for data centres and exchanges.
Wednesday, the Netblocks internet observatory reported that metrics indicated a new progressive decline in internet connectivity in Gaza, which would likely impair the ability of residents to communicate.
The United Nations reported that 91 trucks carrying food, medication, health supplies, bottled water, blankets, tents, and hygiene products entered Gaza from Egypt on Tuesday, bringing the total number of such shipments to 1,187 since the Rafah crossing reopened on October 21.
The United Nations referred to that as a "drop in the ocean," observing that, on average, 500 lorries would enter Gaza per day prior to the outbreak of hostilities.
