Hospitals in the Palestinian territory are facing fuel shortages amidst cold weather that could be deadly for many patients.
Maram Humaid | Al Jazeera | Jan 20, 2019
We feel very concerned due to the news of fuel crisis in hospitals. It’s a disaster. If the hospital stopped, where we would go? All patient children would die, not only my child.
—Suffian Salem
Gaza’s health ministry has made an urgent appeal for help amid an ongoing fuel crisis in the coastal territory, warning of a “catastrophic situation” in its hospitals, including a children’s facility.
Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesman of Gaza’s health ministry, said five hospitals in the Palestinian territory would stop operating within hours, because generators were unable to operate due to the fuel shortage.
Last week, Beit Hanoun hospital in northern Gaza stopped operating.
“The lives of hundreds of patients in Gaza hospitals are under a threat of dire consequences,” al-Qidra said.
Due to cold weather and increasing electricity cuts, fuel consumption has increased, leaving stocks in the five hospitals down to 17 percent, al-Qidra said.
“The austerity measures taken by the ministry are in their final moments,” he said.
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