Gaza’s Al-Quds Hospital scaling back operations due to fuel shortage, Palestine Red Crescent Society says
The Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City is scaling back most of its operations amid a fuel shortage to ensure minimal services over the next few days, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said in a statement Wednesday.
“The hospital is facing an acute shortage of fuel and was expected to run out of fuel today,” the PRCS statement said.
The hospital's main generator has been turned off, PRCS added, and the hospital is operating on a small generator instead.
The hospital has shut down its surgical ward, MRI and medical imaging ward, and oxygen generation plant, the statement said. Each hospital building is now receiving two hours of electricity per day after 5 p.m. local time to ensure that the 14,000 displaced people sheltering there have enough power to meet their basic needs.
“(I)t has now become impossible for PRCS to obtain fuel from within the Gaza Strip,” it said. “PRCS hopes that it will not be forced to completely shut down Al Quds hospital in the coming few days as fuel and basic supplies run out.”
PRCS is urgently appealing to health and relief organizations to allow humanitarian aid, medical supplies, and fuel to reach the Al-Quds Hospital.
Some context: Hundreds of trucks carrying humanitarian aid have entered Gaza since they were first allowed on October 21, including 81 trucks from the Egyptian Red Crescent that were received at the Rafah border crossing on Tuesday, according to the PRCS.
Those trucks have contained food and water, medical supplies and medicine, but fuel has not been allowed to enter Gaza.
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