Gaza’s Health Ministry warned on Saturday that the few overwhelmed hospitals still functioning in the Strip could cease service altogether if the diesel generators needed to keep the lights on and run life-saving medical equipment are not replaced or maintained soon.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said it expected some of the hospitals’ generators to break down soon because Israel was blocking the entry of necessary spare parts during its siege of the territory.
“This means the death of the sick and injured and the complete end of health services,” the ministry said in a statement.
A main generator at Al-Aqsa Hospital in the central Gaza city of Deir el-Balah recently broke down, leaving the medical facility with only one generator still functioning.
The hospital was overwhelmed with victims of Israeli air strikes that have continued in central Gaza in recent days, killing dozens of civilians and injuring many more, according to the Israeli Foreign Ministry and Palestinian news media.
A health ministry spokesman said large numbers of wounded people, including many children, were taken to Al-Aqsa Hospital on Saturday, which is running on a single generator and facing severe shortages of medicines and equipment.
Hospitals in Gaza Repeated Israeli air strikes Since the start of the war, Gaza’s health system has been paralyzed, now in its ninth month, with many medical facilities no longer functioning. The World Health Organization said this week that Israel has launched 464 attacks on Gaza’s health system since the Hamas-led assault on Israel on October 7, affecting 101 medical facilities.
Israel has long accused Hamas of using Gaza’s hospitals for military purposes, but has struggled to prove its earlier claims that Hamas had a command and control center underground at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Evidence provided by the Israeli military and reviewed by The New York Times This suggests that Hamas used the hospital as a cover, storing weapons inside and maintaining a tunnel underneath the hospital that provided water, electricity and air conditioning.
The Israeli military has not yet provided similar evidence about other medical centers it attacked.
Hamas and hospital administrators have denied the Israeli accusations.
Because Israel has also blocked most of Gaza’s electricity supply, hospitals have had to rely almost entirely on generators to continue treating patients, many of whom are victims of Israeli military raids.
Before the war broke out, Israel and Egypt, which also border Gaza, had imposed a severe land, air and sea blockade on the Gaza Strip for several years.
After the war broke out, Israel declared a “total siege” on Gaza, resulting in severe shortages of food, water and medicine. Israel also blockaded Sanitary equipment and other items.
Israel’s Civil Administration, an arm of its military administration in Gaza and the West Bank, did not respond to questions about the hospital’s generators. Previously, the Civil Administration has said restrictions on goods entering Gaza are intended to prevent items from entering the country that could be used for military purposes.
