Patients in Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Hospital at ‘risk of death’ amid fuel shortages

Severe fuel shortages have caused power outages at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza, with hospital officials warning that many sick and wounded patients face certain death if supplies needed to run medical equipment and generators are not replenished.

Early on Friday, the hospital in Deir el-Balah received 15,000 litres (4,000 gallons) of fuel but that will only last a few more days, Al Jazeera’s reporters in Gaza said. Overnight, the shortage forced medical workers to work in an almost pitch-dark environment, with doctors using the light from their mobile phones while tending to premature babies.

“We have hundreds of patients including the injured and those that are diagnosed with kidney failure and need electricity for their dialysis treatment,” Iyad al-Jabri, Al-Aqsa’s medical director, said in a statement on Friday.

“All the patients will be condemned to death. Especially those in the ICU, the incubators and those relying on dialysis treatment,” he added.

The hospital requires more than 4,000 litres (1,000 gallons) of fuel each day to continue operations and care for patients. Al-Jabri said any help they can offer patients “will stop completely” without any fuel.

“We are calling on international organisations to send 50,000 litres [13,200 gallons] of fuel before there is an imminent crisis here,” he added.

Israel’s months-long siege of Gaza has either destroyed or left most hospitals out of service. Those that have remained open, including Al-Aqsa, are barely functioning with supplies of medicine and fuel almost running out amid an overflow of patients.

Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system, as well as its denial of treatment for Palestinian patients, are considered war crimes according to legal experts and human rights groups. On Friday the International Court of Justice will make a ruling on Israel’s military offensive in Rafah after South Africa approached the court to order Israel to stop.