The UN warns
that a lack of fuel threatens to shut down more medical facilities as Pope
Francis describes Israel’s military campaign as ‘very serious and shameful’.
The United Nations warns that a lack
of fuel supply in Gaza threatens to shut down more medical facilities across
the besieged territory, putting the lives of patients and newborns at “grave
risk”.
The UN’s condemnation of the
“deliberate and systematic” attacks on Gaza hospitals came as relentless
Israeli strikes killed more than 50 more Palestinians in the last 24 hours.
Gaza health officials on Thursday
said Al-Aqsa, Nasser and the European hospitals are at risk of imminent
closure, after 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 an influx of more injured civilians, many of them women
and children, who had now faced a genocide for 15 months.
“Doctors are reporting about the
acute shortage of basic supplies, including surgical tools, antibiotics and
painkillers,” he said.
Dr Bushra Othman, general surgeon
and a volunteer at the hospital, said the situation is being assessed every 24
hours, as officials attempt to replenish supplies.
“At any time during the day, power
and electricity will cut out, and certain areas should be protected such as the
operating theatres, the intensive care unit, including the neonatal unit,” she
told Al Jazeera.
At Nasser Hospital, Doctors Without
Borders warned that the lives of 15 newborns in incubators were at risk due to
a shortage of fuel for generators that provide electricity to the facility.
“Without fuel, these newborns are at
risk of losing their lives,” said Pascale Coissard, MSF’s emergency
coordinator.
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, also
reporting from Deir el-Balah, said the atmosphere in the Palestinian territory
“is quite charged with tension and fear”.
“What we have seen over the past 24
hours has been very bloody. The death toll from the past day has really been
staggering,” he said.
On Thursday, the UN agency for
Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) renewed its call for a ceasefire. “More
humanitarian aid must come into Gaza and a ceasefire is more critical than
ever,” the group wrote on X.
Despite the UN’s appeal, Israel
continued its bombardment across the Gaza Strip.
Medical sources told Al Jazeera
Arabic at least six Palestinians were killed in attacks at dawn in central and
southern Gaza, while at least eight others were killed in Jabalia in northern
Gaza.
Wafa news agency reported that four
Palestinians, including three children, were killed at Nuseirat refugee camp
while several others remained missing under the rubble.
Wafa said Israeli strikes killed at
least 51 civilians and injured 78 others in the past 24 hours.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has
killed 46,006 Palestinians and wounded at least 109,378 others, according to
Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
Meanwhile, Pope Francis on Thursday
stepped up his criticisms of Israel’s military campaign as “very serious and
shameful”.
In his yearly address to diplomats
delivered on his behalf by an aide on Thursday, the pope appeared to reference
deaths caused by the cold weather in Gaza, where there is almost no
electricity.
“We cannot accept that children are
freezing to death because hospitals have been destroyed or a country’s energy
network has been hit,” the text of his address said.
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