Palestinian fuel distributors in Gaza have agreed to provide an emergency shipment to a UN aid agency.
The Association for Petrol Station Owners in Gaza is to give 50,000 litres of diesel to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
UNRWA yesterday said it would be forced to suspend food distribution to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, citing a shortage in fuel supplies in the Hamas-controlled territory.
UNRWA said the 50,000 litres should be enough to last about a week.
An Israeli official estimated storage tanks on the Palestinian side of the Nahal Oz crossing, the only border terminal used to pump fuel to Gaza, contained about 1m litres of fuel.
He accused Hamas of preventing their distribution.
The petrol station owners' association has been on strike, refusing to collect the fuel near Nahal Oz in protest at Israel's cutbacks in supplies to the territory.
Following UNWRA's warning, the EU called on Israel to ensure deliveries of fuel to Gaza.
EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel said it was unacceptable that the UN should find itself having to consider suspending its humanitarian operations simply for a lack of fuel for its vehicles.
He added that it was unacceptable that public services - such as rubbish collection, sewage treatment, or hospitals - are on the brink of collapse for the same reason.
Israel has tightened border restrictions, while pledging to allow humanitarian aid to continue to flow to Gaza, after Hamas violently took over the territory in June.
Palestinian militants attacked the Nahal Oz fuel terminal two weeks ago, killing two Israeli civilians.
Israel allowed 1m litres of EU-funded diesel fuel to be pumped to Gaza's only power station yesterday after Kanan Abaid, deputy chairman of the Palestinian Energy Authority in Gaza, warned the plant would have to shut down unless supplies resumed.
Walkout
France led a walkout of Western envoys from a UN Security Council debate on the Middle East last night.
The walkout happened after Libya's ambassador Giadalla Ettalhi, speaking during a closed-door session, compared the situation in Gaza to Nazi concentration camps.
French ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert was reported as having taken off his earpiece and walking out.
Afterwards, Syrian ambassador Bashar Jaafari said: 'Unfortunately those who complain of being victims of genocide are repeating the same kind of genocide against the Palestinians.'
The incident occurred as the 15-member council was trying to agree on a compromise statement that would have highlighted the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza while also contributing positively to efforts to reach an Israeli-Palestinian settlement.
South African ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, the council's chairman this month, told reporters that members 'could not agree' on a statement.
The council has several times tried and failed to agree on a statement regarding the Israeli siege of Gaza in response to rocket fire from Palestinian militants based there.
Meanwhile, US President George W Bush is meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House today to try to bolster him and shore up a fragile US-backed peace effort with Israel.
With 10 months left in office, President Bush will hold talks with Mr Abbas in the face of deep skepticism over the chances for securing a Middle East peace deal before the US president finishes his term early next year.
