The Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital suspended operations after an Israeli blockade interrupted fuel supplies.
Palestinian health authorities said the only hospital offering cancer treatment in the Gaza Strip was out of service after running out of fuel amid Israel’s ongoing blockade of the territory.
The Israeli siege of Gaza has cut off fuel supplies and severely restricted access to food, water and electricity, while the Israeli army continues to bombard the Gaza Strip, where hospitals are filled with the dying and injured and where shortages put enormous pressure on medical staff. .
At a press conference on Wednesday, the director of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, Subhi Sukeyk, said the facility was no longer operating.
“We’re telling the world, ‘Don’t let cancer patients die because of an out-of-service hospital,’” Sukeyk said.
Palestinian authorities say 8,796 people have been killed by Israeli bombings – more than a third of them children – since October 7, when the Palestinian armed group Hamas carried out an attack on southern Israel, which, according to Israeli authorities, killed more than 1,400 people, most of them. civilians.
The suspension of operations at the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital means that 16 of the Gaza Strip’s 35 hospitals are now out of service, as are more than 50 of Gaza’s 72 primary health care clinics.
“The lives of 70 cancer patients inside the hospital are seriously threatened,” Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila said in a statement.
“This is a life or death moment for thousands of patients in Gaza unless hospitals continue to operate,” World Health Organization spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic told Al Jazeera. . “The case of cancer patients is already fragile. If they don’t get the treatment they need, it really is a death sentence for them. »
Sukeyk previously warned Al Jazeera that the hospital was running low on fuel and that stopping operations would have a devastating impact on patients.
In a social media post Wednesday, medical group Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Médecins Sans Frontières, said the hospital was damaged by a projectile on Monday.
“Israeli authorities continue to prevent the entry of fuel into Gaza, essential to supply hospitals,” the group said. “Additionally, hospitals and health facilities are being attacked in this horrific attack. »
It’s not just cancer patients who face medical vulnerability in the face of heavy bombing: pregnant women also face the prospect of giving birth without medical assistance.
“An estimated 50,000 pregnant women and girls in Gaza are at risk of not receiving prenatal care and giving birth without electricity or medical supplies,” Human Rights Watch said in a previous statement.
Fuel shortages have also pushed humanitarian operations in Gaza to the breaking point.
“UNRWA desperately needs fuel. No fuel has entered the Gaza Strip for three and a half weeks now,” Juliette Touma, spokesperson for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), told Al Jazeera. .
“We are completely overwhelmed. We have 670,000 people in our shelters, that’s four times more than we anticipated,” she said. “Fuel absolutely saves lives.”
