Israel-Hamas war: How Gazan hospitals ‘risk turning into morgues’

Gaza is staring at a dire crisis after its only power plant ran out of fuel Wednesday(11 October). A power blackout envelops the enclave as Israel continues its relentless airstrikes on the blockaded Strip. Hospitals in Gaza are overwhelmed, with wounded people waiting for emergency rooms. Now, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has warned that “hospitals risk turning into morgues” as Israeli missiles bombard the crowded enclave. Let’s take a look at how the recent conflagration between Israel and Hamas is taking a toll on Gazan hospitals. ‘No humanitarian aid’ Israeli warplanes have pounded Gaza over the last five days at a scale never before seen by its war-weary residents. Israel declared a “complete siege” on Gaza after the Palestinian militant group Hamas which rules the enclave pulled a surprise attack on the West Asian country on the weekend. Israeli restrictions and attacks are also preventing critical medical supplies from reaching the Gaza Strip. The Gaza Power Plant remains shut down after it ran out of fuel yesterday. Besides escalating problems for medical centres, the power shortage is also impacting efforts to provide humanitarian aid across the Strip, as per an Al Jazeera report. People in Gaza are finding it hard to access money through ATMs and banks. Families wishing to reach out to relatives abroad have no means of communication to do so, the report added. [caption id=“attachment_13241342” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Palestinian medics inspect a damaged ambulance hit by an Israeli air strike inside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on 7 October 2023. AP File Photo[/caption] Israel’s energy minister Israel Katz vowed on Thursday (12 October) that his country would not allow humanitarian aid into Gaza until Hamas released the hostages it took from Israel during its stealth attack on Saturday. “Humanitarian aid to Gaza? No electric switch will be turned on, no water tap will be opened and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli abductees are returned home,” he tweeted. There are at least 130 captives, including non-Israelis, being held across the Strip. ALSO READ: ‘Mom died on top of me’: Heartbreaking tales of survival from the Israel-Hamas war Impact on Gazan hospitals According to the Gaza health ministry, Israeli bombings have killed 1,417 people and wounded 6,238 others since Saturday. These casualties include 447 children and 248 women. Terming the latest flare-up between Israel and Hamas “abhorrent”, ICRC, a medical charity, on Thursday urged both sides “to reduce the suffering of civilians”. “As Gaza loses power, hospitals lose power, putting newborns in incubators and elderly patients on oxygen at risk. Kidney dialysis stops, and X-rays can’t be taken. Without electricity, hospitals risk turning into morgues,” Fabrizio Carboni, the ICRC’s regional director for the Near and Middle East, said in a statement, as per Al Jazeera. “Families in Gaza are already having trouble accessing clean water. No parent wants to be forced to give a thirsty child dirty water,” he added. Ashraf Al Qidra, spokesperson of the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, said on Wednesday in a statement that Israel’s blockage and refusal to allow fuel into Gaza is putting “our medical operation into a precarious situation”. If prompt actions were not taken to restore power in hospitals, it could lead to a “huge loss of these lives”, Al Jazeera quoted him as saying. The Palestinian health ministry said that hospitals in Gaza have run out of beds, with injured lying on floors as “Israeli aggression intensifies”. The ICRC has said that hospitals were running on generators, but the fuel would only last “for a few hours”. Many injured patients admitted to intensive care units in Gazan hospitals rely on critical oxygen generators, which need electricity to run. Speaking to Al Jazeera, Ahmed Sheikh Ali, whose family is being treated at a hospital after surviving the attack on their home, said, “My brother, two sisters and parents are slowly fading away right before my eyes, and it’s heart-wrenching that I cannot do anything to save them”. Children , some with serious injuries like shrapnel wounds, are in hospital beds crying, waiting for treatment, reported BBC. Amid low fuel supplies, doctors are forced to carry out only life-saving treatment in several cases. Yamen Hamad, a father of four, told Reuters after his home in the northern town of Beit Hanoun was ravaged by Israeli strikes, “I lived through all the wars and incursions in the past, but I have never witnessed anything worse than this war”. As per Associated Press (AP), Nebal Farsakh, spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent, said, “In previous escalations, there would always be some time, even a half-hour, without airstrikes”. “But now, there is not a single minute. That’s why the casualties keep going up and up.” Many Palestinians are also rushing to hospitals believing they would be safe there from Israeli strikes. [caption id=“attachment_13241402” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Palestinians, who fled their homes due to Israeli strikes, rest as they shelter at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, on 12 October. Reuters[/caption] Dr Justin Dalby, who is in Gaza working with the humanitarian charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) told BBC that the number of injured was “just absolutely immense” amid “constant violence”. “If you are taking out the electricity supply of a hospital, it means that lights go off. Monitoring equipment, oxygen delivery, mechanical ventilators, operating theatres and surgical equipment that require electricity will no longer be able to function,” he explained. Richard Brennan, regional emergency director of the World Health Organization (WHO), said that Gazan hospitals do not have adequate supplies even during normal times. With the latest escalation, the hospitals are facing shortages of everything from beds to essential drugs, bandages to intravenous fluids, reported AP.  “It’s almost as bad as it gets. It’s not just the damage, the destruction. It’s that psychological pressure. The constant shelling … the loss of one’s colleagues," Brennan added. Human rights groups respond Human Rights Watch (HRW), a global rights organisation, has said Israel and Hamas “must ensure that the basic needs of the population are met.” “Instead, they have since 2007 run Gaza as an ‘open-air prison’, imposing sweeping restrictions on the movement of people and goods. In the wake of the weekend attacks [by Hamas], authorities are now closing those prison walls in further,” it said. HRW also called Israel’s energy minister using Hamas attacks to justify “why we decided to stop the flow of water, electricity and fuel" as “war crimes” tactics, “as is using starvation as a weapon of war”. “This is an unprecedented scope of destruction,” Miriam Marmur, a spokesperson for Gisha, an Israeli human rights group, told AP. “Israeli decisions to cut electricity, fuel, food and medicine supplies severely compound the risks to Palestinians and threaten to greatly increase the toll in human life.”  With inputs from agencies