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.
