GAZA, July 11 — Doctors at Gaza's largest hospital say crippling fuel shortages have led them to put several premature babies in single incubators as they struggle to keep the newborns alive while Israel presses on with its military campaign.
Overwhelmed medics say the dwindling fuel supplies threaten to plunge them into darkness and paralyse hospitals and clinics in the Palestinian territory, where health services have been pummelled during 21 months of war.
An Israeli military official said around 160,000 litres of fuel destined for hospitals and other humanitarian facilities had entered Gaza since Wednesday, but that its distribution around the enclave was not under Israel's purview.
While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the fate of Israeli hostages in Gaza with US President Donald Trump in Washington this week, patients at Al Shifa medical center in Gaza City faced imminent danger, doctors there said.
"We are forced to place four, five, or sometimes three premature babies in one incubator," said Dr Mohammed Abu Selmia, Al Shifa's director.
"Premature babies are now in a very critical condition."
The threat comes from "neither an airstrike nor a missile — but a siege choking the entry of fuel," Dr Muneer Alboursh, director general of the Gaza Ministry of Health, told Reuters.
The shortage is "depriving these vulnerable people of their basic right to medical care, turning the hospital into a silent graveyard," he said.
The Israeli military official said such depictions were creating "a false narrative". UN bodies working in Gaza decide how to distribute fuel and he did not know if fuel had reached Al Shifa yet, he said.
Gaza, a tiny strip of land with a population of more than two million, was under a long, Israeli-led blockade before the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas erupted.
Palestinians and medical workers have accused the Israeli military of attacking hospitals, allegations it rejects.
Israel accuses Hamas of operating from medical facilities and running command centres underneath them, which Hamas denies.
Patients in need of medical care, food and water are paying the price.
There have been more than 600 attacks on health facilities since the conflict began, the WHO says, without attributing blame. It has described the health sector in Gaza as being "on its knees", with shortages of fuel, medical supplies and frequent arrivals of mass casualties.
Just half of Gaza's 36 general hospitals are partially functioning, according to the UN agency.
Dr Mohammed warned of a humanitarian catastrophe and accused Israel of "trickle-feeding" fuel to Gaza's hospitals.
Officials at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis are also wondering how they will cope with the fuel crisis. The hospital needs 4,500 litres of fuel per day and it now has only 3,000 litres, said hospital spokesperson Mohammed Sakr.
Doctors are performing surgeries without electricity or air conditioning. The sweat from staff is dripping into patients' wounds, he said.
Earlier this year, Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza for nearly three months, before partly lifting it while introducing a US and Israeli-backed scheme that largely bypasses the UN system. Israel accuses Hamas of diverting aid, something Hamas denies.
Gaza's health ministry says Israel's response has killed over 57,000 Palestinians. It has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced almost all Gaza's population and prompted accusations of genocide and war crimes, which Israel denies.
— Reuters
