The doctors at Al-Helou Hospital in the city of Gaza face great challenges to take care of newborns and premature due to the scarcity of equipment and energy failures caused by lack of fuel.
Doctors described to Reuters the challenges they face to keep newborns alive, while
“We are dealing with critical cases of newborns, especially premature. Most are deprived of oxygen during delivery and need fans to help stabilize. We need electricity continuously, 24 hours a day. If we are cut, the equipment we use will stop working, and this has a direct impact on the children’s lives,” Al-Helou Hospital Pediatricians, Ziad Al-Mouter, told Reuters.
A failure in electricity can be a death sentence.
“When generators stop, what happens almost daily, services are paralyzed and, in some cases, this leads to death due to lack of energy, caused by a failure in electric generators and lack of fuel. We appeal to supply electricity generators and that the fuel is supplied in sufficient amounts to continue the service,” said the head of the Neonatal Department of the Hospital Al-Helou.
Pediatrician Ziad Al-Masry of the same hospital said they are forced to pile up babies in a single incubator.
“We have three or four newborns in an incubator that was designed for a premature baby. Our situation is a disaster: the overcrowding of children (in an incubator) leads to the spread of disease and the inability to deal with them, which represents a danger to them. We need more incubators to deal with the number of newborns, especially premature ones,” he said.
The scarcity of fuel threatens to immerse yourself in the city of Gaza in the dark and paralyze hospitals and clinics in the Palestinian territory, where health services have been bombarded several times for 21 months of war.
An Israeli military officer told Reuters that about 160,000 liters of fuel for hospitals and other humanitarian facilities have entered Gaza since Wednesday, July 9, but that their distribution through the enclave was not under Israel’s purposes.
A population of more than 2 million
Gaza, a small track of land with a population of over 2 million, was a long blockade led by Israel before the beginning of the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Palestinians and health professionalsallegations that Israel rejects.
Israel accuses Hamas of operating from medical facilities and managing command centers under them, which Hamas denies.
Only half of the 36 general hospitals of Gaza are partially operating, according to the
The Israeli Military Aid Coordination Agency, Cogat, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request to comment on fuel shortages at Gaza medical facilities and the risk for patients.
Earlier this year, Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza for almost three months, before partially suspending it, introducing a US and Israel -backed scheme that largely ignores the UN system. Israel accuses Hamas of diverting help, something Hamas denies.
The latest episode of the Israelo-Palestinian conflict that lasted for decades was triggered in October 2023, when militants led by Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and hostage, according to Israeli data.
The Ministry of Health of Gaza states that the Israeli response killed more than 57,000 Palestinians. It also caused a hunger crisis, moved internally almost the entire population of Gaza and caused accusations of genocide and war crimes, which Israel denies.
