Medical authorities in the Gaza Strip say at least four patients have lost their lives at a hospital in southern part of the territory because power to the facility was cut during an Israeli raid and oxygen supplies were subsequently restricted.
“The generators of Nasser Hospital stopped and the power was cut off,” Gaza’s Health Ministry said in a statement on Friday, raising the alarm over the fate of six other patients in intensive care and three children in a nursery at the medical complex in the southern city of Khan Younis.
“We hold the Israeli Occupation responsible for the lives of patients and staff considering that the complex is now under its full control,” the statement added.
Additionally, reports indicate that two women have been forced to give birth in inhumane conditions at Nasser Hospital, without electricity, water, food, or heating.
Dr Nahed Abu Taima, director of Nasser Medical Complex, has described the situation at the hospital as “catastrophic”.
“We were forced to transfer all the patients and the wounded to the hospital’s old building,” he told Al Jazeera on Friday, adding that Israeli forces were rounding up patients and civilians taking shelter in the hospital.
“Electric power was cut off from the entire medical complex. Many patients in ICUs and those on oxygen supply and also those on dialysis are left fighting for their lives since 3 am [02:00 GMT],” Taima said.
“We stand helpless, unable to provide any form of medical assistance to the patients inside the hospital or the victims flooding into the hospital every single minute.”
Earlier, the health ministry in Gaza warned that the imminent depletion of fuel and the Israeli blockade pose a threat to the lives of patients and vulnerable children at the complex.
It also appealed to all international institutions to intervene quickly to save the patients and staff at the Nasser Medical Complex before it was too late.
Israel waged the bloody war on Gaza on October 7 after Hamas launched Operation al-Aqsa Storm in the occupied territories in retaliation for the Tel Aviv regime’s incessant crimes against Palestinians.
Since the start of the aggression, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 28,775 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the territory. Another 68,552 individuals have sustained injuries as well.
The campaign has devastated large swathes of Gaza, destroyed hospitals and displaced most of its population of 2.4 million.
Israel has also imposed a “complete siege” on the coastal sliver, cutting off fuel, electricity, food and water.
