The Israeli government announced Friday that it will allow two fuel trucks per day to enter the war-torn Gaza Strip.
The Israeli War Cabinet said in a statement that it has "unanimously approved a joint recommendation" of the Israel Defense Force and Israel's Shin Bet internal security agency "to comply with the U.S. request and allow the entry of two diesel tankers a day for the needs of the U.N. to support water and sewer infrastructure."
The trucks will pass through the Egyptian-controlled Rafah border crossing with the help of the United Nations, delivering the fuel to civilians in southern Gaza, "provided that it does not reach Hamas," according to the Israeli War Cabinet.
"This action allows Israel the continued international maneuvering space necessary to eliminate Hamas," the cabinet said. "This action is intended, among other things, to minimally support water, sewage and sanitation systems, in order to prevent the outbreak of epidemics that could spread throughout the entire area, harm both the residents of the Strip and our forces, and spread even into Israel."
How to help victims of the Israel-Gaza conflict
More than 2,600 people, including civilians and hundreds of children, have been killed and nearly 9,000 injured in Israel and Gaza since the war broke out on Saturday.
The U.S. has been urgently pressuring Israel to allow fuel into Gaza over the last few days, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling multiple members of the Israeli war cabinet to warn them that failure to move quickly on this would certainly result in a humanitarian catastrophe, according to a senior State Department official.
Blinken told the Israeli officials that fuel had to be separate from hostage negotiations, the official said.
The official said the U.S. will continue to push for the amount of fuel allowed in to be steadily increased.
-ABC News' Jordana Miller and Shannon Crawford