Hamas says key hospital in northern Gaza, closer to Jabaliya refugee camp, out of power

An Indonesian hospital in the Gaza Strip, closer to Jabaliya refugee camp which was attacked in Israeli airstrikes earlier this week, is struggling for electricity after the power generator went out of service early on Thursday morning. Situated in Beit Lahia, the hospital is considered to be the main healthcare centre in the northern Gaza Strip. In a televised statement, Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qudra said the hospital was running on a smaller backup generator but had to turn off lights in most rooms, shut down oxygen generators and resort to oxygen cylinders, and turn off mortuary refrigerators. “These exceptional measures will allow the Indonesian Hospital to work for a matter of days,” Al-Qudra says. “However, if we cannot secure electricity or fuel then we will face a disaster," Ashraf said. Since the initial days of the October 7 Israel-Hamas war, Gaza health officials have been warning that hospitals were in imminent danger of closing. Some aid trucks have entered the blockaded Gaza Strip since the war began, but Israel has not allowed trucks to bring fuel, which Hamas needs to run the ventilation and electricity in its vast tunnel network. On Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also released a recording of an intelligence intercept of a conversation in which a Hamas commander can be heard repeatedly alluding to Hamas taking fuel from the hospital’s stocks. Israel also said Hamas has hundreds of thousands of liters of fuel that it could supply to hospitals and other civilians. More than 8,800 Palestinians have been killed in the war, mostly women and minors, and more than 22,000 people have been wounded, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. With inputs from agencies