Photo shows Palestinian patients and medics at al-Shifa Hospital, in Gaza City, the Gaza Strip, on November 10, 2023.    (Photo by AFP)

Gaza City, November 23 (RHC)-- A senior Gaza health official has warned that all hospitals in the besieged territory will have to stop or reduce services within 48 hours for lack of fuel due to the Israeli blockade. 

“We raise an urgent warning as all hospitals in the Gaza Strip will stop working or reduce their services within 48 hours due to the occupation’s obstruction of fuel entry,” Marwan al-Hams, director of Gaza’s field hospitals, said during a news conference on Friday. 

He also warned about the deteriorating situation of medical facilities in the besieged territory.   “The Israeli army continues its genocide against our people in general and its destruction of the health care system in particular.” 

“The medical teams in northern Gaza hospitals are without food, and patients are without treatment, while no emergency or civil defense services are operating due to the ongoing genocide,” Hams said.

Hams added that Israeli forces targeted the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza earlier in the day, injuring six medical staffers, two of whom are in critical condition.  He warned that the hospital will turn into a mass grave if no medical supplies are allowed in as it remains besieged and under attack from Israeli forces.

One attack shut down the main power generator Thursday, while ongoing bombing punctured the hospital’s water tanks.  The hospital is still caring for 85 patients, including babies, children and patients in critical condition.

He said the Israeli army had struck the hospital's power generator, oxygen station, and water supply system.

Paramedics, hospitals, and humanitarian aid workers are off limits under the rules of war, but have all been targeted by Israel in recent offensives in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon.

“Gaza is on the brink of hunger, with many children hospitalized due to malnutrition, hunger, and dehydration.”  “There have been deaths in northern Gaza hospitals due to hunger, especially among the elderly.”

Hams also appealed to international community to “work to end the war and genocide against our people, to protect and secure medical staff and hospitals, and to allow the entry of all food, medical aid, and fuel into Gaza.”

“We call on international institutions to exploit the decision of the International Criminal Court to stop the genocidal war in Gaza Strip.”

The ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ousted war minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday “for crimes against humanity and war crimes” committed in Gaza.

International organizations say the people of Gaza are enduring a systematic starvation policy, with severe shortages of food supplies caused by Israel's blockade of humanitarian aid.

More than 44,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza since October last year. 

[ SOURCE: PRESS TV ]