Gaza: Health ministry worried hospital generators will run out of fuel in 48hrs

Amidst increased Israeli airstrikes on the besieged enclave of Gaza strip, the Ministry of Health has issued a warning that the electric generators in hospitals will cease functioning within the next 48 hours due to a shortage in fuel.

The Ministry’s spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra in a brief said that the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza is “slow and cannot change the reality” on the ground.

The ministry reported that 32 health centers were out of service after Israel cut off access to essential supplies, including fuel, as part of its bombing campaign, which has destroyed entire neighborhoods and pushed humanitarian conditions to breaking point.

It went on to say that hospitals’ immediate needs must be prioritised in terms of aid distribution, urging the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross to push for the delivery of fuel and blood units into the enclave.

The Indonesian Hospital, located in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahia neighborhood, was forced to close after losing power on Monday.

Meanwhile, a convoy of humanitarian aid trucks delivered water, food, and medicine to Gaza on Monday, the third such delivery since limited aid began arriving on Saturday.

The UN says fuel was not included and reserves will run out within two days.

Following an attack by Hamas, the enclave’s governing group, inside southern Israel on October 7 that claimed the lives of over 1,400 people, the majority of them civilians, Israel began its heavy air campaign against Gaza.

Gaza’s Health Ministry reports that over 5,000 Palestinians have died as a result of Israeli attacks; approximately 40% of the victims are children.