By Hidaya al-Saedi
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – The local health sector in the blockaded Gaza Strip stands on the verge of a “severe crisis” due to a chronic lack of fuel for emergency generators, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
“What remains of a fuel grant — sent by the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and the Islamic Bank in February — will only meet our electricity needs until the first or second week of next month,” Ashraf Abu-Mahadi, head of the ministry’s international cooperation department, said Tuesday evening.
“This means Gaza’s ongoing health crisis will only worsen, further disrupting basic health services,” he warned.
According to Abu-Mahadi, hospitals in the Gaza Strip need at least 450,000 liters of fuel to continue operating each month.
Emergency generators, he went on to explain, were needed to cope with frequent power outages — caused by Israel’s ongoing blockade — that can sometimes last for up to 16 hours at a stretch.
Abu-Mahadi called on local, Arab and international institutions to take all steps necessary to ensure Gaza’s continued access to adequate fuel supplies.
The Gaza Strip continues to groan under an 11-year Israeli blockade that has gutted its economy and deprived its roughly two million inhabitants of many basic commodities, including fuel and medicine.
