People wait outside Gaza City's Al-Quds Hospital on October 29, 2023. (Photo by Khoder al-Zaanoun / AFP)
Al Quds hospital is curtailing most operations in an attempt to ration fuel use and ensure a minimum level of services over the coming few days. The hospital run by Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) stated this in a press statement adding that it is facing an acute shortage of fuel and was expected to run out of fuel.
The statement added that lack of fuel supplies has forced the hospital to adopt the following measures:
1. The hospital's main generator has been turned off with one smaller generator supplying the hospital with power
2. Surgical ward has been shut down
3. Oxygen generation plant has been shut down; it now relies on oxygen cylinders
4. MRI and medical imaging ward has been shut down
5. An electricity rationing schedule was adopted with each hospital building receiving only 2 hours of electricity per day after 5pm. This schedule will ensure that IDPs sheltering at the hospital receive enough electricity to meet basic needs including cooking and charging phones.
Over the past two weeks, it has warned time and again that its fuel supplies would run out if Israeli occupation forces continue to refuse to allow fuel to enter the Gaza Strip. A week ago, the hospital was able to secure a limited amount of fuel from petrol stations in the Gaza Strip. However, it has now become impossible for it to obtain fuel from within the Gaza Strip, especially in Gaza and northern Gaza Governorates.
The hospital hopes that it will not be forced to completely shut down in the coming few days as fuel and basic supplies run out. Fuel, medical supplies, medicine as well as water and food for both patients and medical teams must be allowed to reach the hospital.
More than 14,000 IDPs are sheltering in the hospital and are also grappling with shortages in food, milk and baby formula.
The hospital itself has been cut off from neighboring areas for three days now as most adjacent homes, infrastructure and roads leading to the hospital have been bombed and destroyed.
PRCS appealed to all international health and relief organizations to allow humanitarian aid, essential assistance, medical supplies and fuel to reach Al Quds hospital as well as Gaza and northern Gaza Governorates.
