PRCS: Medical Services in Northern Gaza Strip at Risk of Stopping Due to Depletion of Fuel Stocks

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has confirmed that its services are at risk of stopping completely in the Gaza and northern Gaza governorates due to the depletion of fuel stocks needed to operate ambulances, emergency medical clinics and relief services. The PRCS said in a press statement Monday that this comes in light of the continued refusal of the Israeli occupation to allow the entry of sufficient quantities of fuel to health service providers in Gaza and the north. It noted that its teams in the two governorates have been suffering from a severe shortage in fuel supplies for about 3 weeks and are currently working at the lowest operational capacity, which constitutes a major obstacle to the crews in providing their services and deepens the humanitarian and health catastrophe that the Gaza and northern Gaza governorates are suffering from. The PRCS stressed in its statement that the cessation of fuel supplies will lead to the complete cessation of the work of ambulances and prevent them f rom responding in light of the repeated targeting of citizens, as well as the cessation of work in medical clinics that serve thousands of citizens. Dr. Marwan Sultan, Director of the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, said that the hospital is threatened with stopping work due to the severe shortage of diesel, noting that the failure to supply diesel threatens the lives of patients and exposes them to the risk of death. The World Health Organization supplies hospitals with fuel in an attempt to continue providing services to Palestinian citizens, but the occupation forces obstruct the supply of fuel from time to time, which increases the difficulty of the medical situation in hospitals in northern Gaza. The occupation destroyed all hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip, whether governmental or private, and medical authorities restored part of them to accommodate the large number of wounded and sick due to the ongoing war and the increase in the injured. Source: Qatar News Agency