News - Middle East: Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), a UK-based charity, has warned that Gaza’s largest partially functioning hospital will shut down “within less than 48 hours”, amid fuel shortage due to Israeli blockade.

In a statement issued on Friday, MAP said Israeli restrictions on fuel deliveries to Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis are threatening the lives of patients, including infants.

“The situation is critical. Without additional fuel, this hospital will shut down in less than 48 hours, leaving critically ill patients – children in ventilators, newborns in incubators, and others in need of urgent care – facing imminent death,” said Mohammed Aghaalkurdi, MAP's Medical Program Lead in Gaza.

According to the statement, Nasser Hospital was already rationing fuel and prioritizing power for operating theatres, paediatric, and neonatal intensive care units.

“We are running out of time. Power cuts are already disrupting care and we are forced to prioritize only the most crucial areas while the rest of the hospital falls into darkness,” Aghaalkurdi said. “The entry of fuel is a matter of life and death.”

MAP urged the international community, including the UK, to demand Israel allow adequate fuel supplies into Gaza to sustain crucial operations at Nasser Hospital and other healthcare facilities.

“We also demand the protection of hospitals and accountability for those responsible for the systematic dismantling of Gaza’s health system which is making Palestinian survival impossible.”

Israel launched a genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime's decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.

The regime’s bloody onslaught on Gaza has so far killed at least 46,006 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured more than 109,378 others. Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under rubble.

Source: Press TV