SAYS KHATIB / AFP
Trauma surgeons treat a child injured in an Israeli bombardment at Kuwait’s Rafah Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip on Oct. 21, 2023, amid fighting between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.
INTERNATIONAL – An open-air prison. Critical fuel shortages in the Gaza Strip are jeopardizing the operation of incubators for more than 120 premature babies, according to a count by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) told AFP on Sunday, October 22.
After more than two weeks of war between Hamas and Israel, hospitals in the narrow Palestinian territory are facing a severe shortage of the supplies they need to care for the thousands of wounded streaming here, humanitarian organizations warn.
“Currently we have more than 120 newborns in incubators, including 70 on mechanical ventilation, and of course it is theirs that is of particular concern to us,” Unicef spokesman Jonathan Crickx told AFP in Jerusalem.
As a result of the “complete siege” announced by Israel two days after the unprecedented Hamas attack on the country on October 7, electricity supply to the Gaza Strip was cut off. The area therefore mainly uses generators that require fuel to operate, which is no longer supplied.
The World Health Organization (WHO) called on Israel during a press conference in Geneva on Thursday to approve its shipment as part of humanitarian assistance to power hospital generators and water stations.
But if Israel has given the green light for humanitarian aid to enter, the first limited shipment of which came from Egypt on Saturday, fuel is excluded. The UN stressed on Saturday the need to also transport fuel to Gaza.
The WHO warns of “tiny” amounts of fuel
The WHO said hospitals in the Gaza Strip had already exhausted their reserves. “What’s left are tiny amounts of fuel” that will be used “to desperately try to provide a few days” of additional energy supplies “where possible,” WHO health emergencies program director Michael Ryan added .
Additional reserves were allocated to hospital generators to maintain essential supplies. Premature babies are treated in seven neonatal units across the Gaza Strip. “If they are placed in incubators with mechanical ventilation, we worry about their survival from the moment the power is turned off,” said Jonathan Crickx.
The health ministry in Gaza, an area controlled by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, said on Saturday that 130 premature babies were “at risk of death” due to a lack of fuel. According to the United Nations Population Fund, about 160 women give birth every day in Gaza. It is also estimated that 50,000 pregnant women currently live in the area.
Gaza’s 2.4 million residents are facing a serious humanitarian crisis. Israel has vowed to “destroy” Hamas – designated a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel – after that movement launched an unprecedented attack on its territory from Gaza on October 7.
According to Israeli authorities, more than 1,400 people have been killed by Hamas men in Israel since October 7, most of whom were civilians on the first day of the attack. Around 4,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have died in relentless Israeli retaliatory attacks on Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry. This report covers 1,756 children.
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