Israeli restrictions on fuel supplies to Gaza are hampering aid deliveries and humanitarian access required under a UN resolution, an EU commissioner, Janez Lenarcic said, AFP reports.

Lenarcic, who is in charge of crisis management, was speaking as the EU countries and aid organisations scrambled to provide relief to Gaza’s population of 2.3 million.

“We are calling for the increase of fuel supplies to the (Gaza) strip,” Lenarcic told journalists in Brussels. “The humanitarian access should be based on the needs and not on some restrictions,” he said.

Lenarcic said aid deliveries to Gaza were encountering two bottlenecks. One is that trucks needing to enter Gaza via the Rafah crossing with Egypt had to undergo screening at a point 90 minutes drive away.

The other is that Israel is allowing only restricted amounts of fuel to go into Gaza which are “still not sufficient for the needs” of the territory. The EU commissioner said Brussels is calling for increased truck screening capacity, and for more fuel to be allowed in.