The United Nations warns that Gaza’s lack of fuel supplies threatens to close more medical facilities in the besieged territory, putting the lives of patients and newborns at “grave risk.”
The UN’s condemnation of “deliberate and systematic” attacks on Gaza hospitals comes as relentless Israeli strikes have killed more than 50 additional Palestinians in the past 24 hours.
Gaza health officials said Thursday that Al-Aqsa, Nasser and European hospitals face imminent closure, after repeated Israeli bombings and blockades of supplies, as they face the same fate as Kamal Adwan hospitals, Indonesian and Al-Awda.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hani Mahmoud, working from Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah, said the facility was now “overloaded” given the influx of injured civilians, many of them women and children , who were now facing genocide for 15 months.
“Doctors are reporting a serious shortage of basic supplies, including surgical tools, antibiotics and painkillers,” he said.
Dr. Bushra Othman, a general surgeon and volunteer at the hospital, said the situation was assessed every 24 hours as authorities tried to replenish supplies.
“At any time of the day, electricity will be cut off and certain areas need to be protected like operating rooms, intensive care unit, including the neonatal unit,” she told Tel Aviv Tribune .
At Nasser Hospital, Doctors Without Borders warned that the lives of 15 newborns in incubators were in danger due to a lack of fuel for the generators that provide electricity to the facility.
“Without fuel, these newborns risk losing their lives,” said Pascale Coissard, MSF emergency coordinator.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, also reporting from Deir el-Balah, said the atmosphere in the Palestinian territory “is quite charged with tension and fear.”
“What we have seen in the last 24 hours has been very bloody. The death toll in recent days is truly staggering,” he said.
On Thursday, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) renewed its call for a ceasefire. “More humanitarian aid needs to arrive in Gaza and a ceasefire is more critical than ever,” the group wrote on X.
Despite the UN’s appeal, Israel continued its bombings on the Gaza Strip.
Medical sources told Tel Aviv Tribune Arabic that at least six Palestinians were killed in dawn attacks in central and southern Gaza, while at least eight others were killed in Jabalia in the north. from Gaza.
The Wafa news agency reported that four Palestinians, including three children, were killed in the Nuseirat refugee camp while several others remain missing under the rubble.
Wafa said Israeli strikes killed at least 51 civilians and injured 78 others in the past 24 hours.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed 46,006 Palestinians and injured at least 109,378 others, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Meanwhile, Pope Francis on Thursday intensified his criticism of the Israeli military campaign, calling it “very serious and shameful.”
In his annual address to diplomats delivered on his behalf by an aide on Thursday, the pope appeared to refer to deaths caused by the cold in Gaza, where there is almost no electricity.
“We cannot accept that children die of cold because hospitals have been destroyed or a country’s energy network has been hit,” reads the text of his speech.
