Shaaban Bilal (Gaza, Cairo)
Hospitals and health sector facilities in the Gaza Strip are suffering from a severe shortage of fuel needed to operate generators, oxygen stations and medicine refrigerators, which threatens to stop them from working in the coming days.
Experts and UN officials warned of a fuel shortage and its unavailability in the remaining health facilities, stressing that this threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of patients and the work of hospitals that are struggling to continue operating after most of them stopped during the past period.
According to Palestinian sources, hospitals and health facilities are following strict austerity measures in the use of fuel to ensure the continued operation of hospital generators, oxygen stations, and medicine storage refrigerators, confirming the suspension of work in many departments within the remaining operating hospitals.
The spokesman for the Palestinian Red Crescent, Raed Al-Nams, confirmed that the fuel shortage has serious repercussions on civilians in Gaza in general, especially hospitals and patients, explaining that the quantities of fuel entering the Strip are not sufficient to cover the basic needs of hospitals, most of which have already gone out of service.
Al-Nams explained, in a statement to Al-Ittihad, that the fuel shortage is hindering humanitarian and relief efforts in the Gaza Strip, as the quantities entering the Strip represent only 14% of the fuel that was entering monthly before last October.
Thirty hospitals out of 36 in Gaza are out of service, according to Al-Nams, who called for the need to intensify the efforts of the international community to open the crossings overlooking the Gaza Strip, as they are the lifeline and allow the flow of fuel, oxygen, anesthesia, sterilization and surgical tools in order to enable and support medical teams and remove the risk of death from the lives of hundreds of thousands of patients and injured.
The spokesman for the Palestinian Red Crescent warned of the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip due to the closure of the crossings, adding that the continued closure, especially the vital Rafah crossing as it is the main artery that feeds the entire Strip, and the difficulty of the complete entry of fuel portend an imminent humanitarian and health disaster.
Limited quantities of fuel are currently allocated to hospitals that are still operating, such as Nasser Medical Center, Al Amal Hospital, and the Kuwaiti field hospital, in addition to 21 ambulances belonging to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The World Health Organization has warned of fuel shortages, stressing that they pose a catastrophic risk to the health system, and that restrictions on the Kerem Shalom crossing, the only currently open crossing, and insecurity and difficulty of movement, have eroded the organization’s ability to maintain fuel supplies for health and humanitarian operations.
The fuel shortage is putting the lives of hundreds of people at risk, including patients and the wounded, according to Dr. Mohammed Saqr, director of nursing at Nasser Medical Complex, who confirmed that medical services in many departments have stopped due to the lack of fuel that powers the hospital’s only generator, and that the lives of up to 15 infants in the neonatal care unit depend on a continuous electricity supply.
In this context, Hisham Mahna, spokesman for the Red Cross in Gaza, explained in a statement to Al-Ittihad that fuel is a key factor in providing medical care to thousands of patients, and that the shortage that occurs as a result of the closure of the crossings and the obstacles to the entry of fuel leads to real risks that affect patients and the wounded, as well as children and infants.
Mahna called for the necessity of running out of fuel in quantities that cover the needs of hospitals that are still operating and are experiencing great pressure due to the increase in the number of patients and injured, stressing the necessity of changing the current situation completely and immediately to save what can be saved of human lives by running out of fuel and humanitarian aid at a greater rate.
UNRWA Media Director in Gaza, Enas Hamdan, considered that the closure of the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings led to the cutting off of relief supplies that enter the agency and other international organizations, explaining, in a statement to Al-Ittihad, that this aid includes fuel, food, water and non-food items, such as tents, blankets and covers.
She added, “The continued closure of the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings is hampering the humanitarian response.”
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