Three hospitals in Gaza are threatened with imminent closure as 50 | have been killed in the latest Israeli attacks News about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
The United Nations has warned that fuel shortages in Gaza are threatening to close more medical facilities across the besieged territory, putting the lives of patients and newborns at “great risk”.
The UN’s condemnation of the “deliberate and systematic” attacks on Gaza hospitals came as merciless Israeli strikes killed more than 50 Palestinians in the last 24 hours.
Gaza health officials said on Thursday that Al-Aqsa, Nasser and European hospitals are at risk of immediate closure, following repeated Israeli bombardment and blockade of supplies, as they face the same fate as Kamal Adwan, Indonesian and Al-Awda Hospitals.
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah, said the facility was now “overstretched” given the influx of more injured civilians, many of them women and children. who now faced genocide in 15 months.
“Doctors are reporting acute shortages 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 being assessed every 24 hours as officials tried to replenish supplies.
“At any time of the day, power and electricity will go out, and certain areas need to be protected, such as operating theatres, intensive care units, including the neonatal unit,” she told Al Jazeera.
At Nasser Hospital, Doctors Without Borders warned that the lives of 15 newborns in incubators are at risk due to a shortage of fuel for the generators that supply the facility with electricity.
“Without fuel, these newborns are at risk of losing their lives,” said Pascale Coissard, MSF’s emergency coordinator.
Al Jazeera journalist Tareq Abu Azzoum, who also reports from Deir el-Balah, said the atmosphere in the Palestinian territory is “quite charged with tension and fear”.
“What we saw in the last 24 hours was very bloody. The number of dead in the past day is truly incredible,” he said.
On Thursday, the UN Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA) renewed its call for a ceasefire. “More humanitarian aid must reach Gaza and a ceasefire is more critical than ever,” the group wrote on X.
Despite the UN appeal, Israel continued to bombard the Gaza Strip.
Medical sources told Al Jazeera Arabic that at least six Palestinians were killed in the dawn attacks in central and southern Gaza, while at least eight others were killed in Jabalia in northern Gaza.
The Wafa news agency reported that four Palestinians, including three children, were killed in the Nuseirat refugee camp, while several others were missing under the rubble.
Wafa said Israeli attacks killed at least 51 civilians and wounded 78 others in the past 24 hours.
As of October 7, 2023, Israel has killed 46,006 Palestinians and wounded at least 109,378 others, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
Meanwhile, Pope Francis on Thursday stepped up his criticism of Israel’s military campaign as “very serious and shameful.”
In his annual address to diplomats delivered on his behalf by an aide on Thursday, the pope appeared to mention the deaths caused by cold weather in Gaza, where there is almost no electricity.
“We cannot accept that children are freezing to death because hospitals are destroyed or the energy grid of a country is affected,” reads the text of his speech.
