Lives at Risk in Gaza

Gaza faces a humanitarian "catastrophe" if ‘Israel' continues to prevent aid reaching the territory by blocking crossing points. Hunger and death have been the only consequences for Gazans following the ‘Israeli' blockage imposed on Gaza strip.
Patients at the largest hospital in Gaza could die if ‘Israel' continues to prevent fuel and essential supplies to the territory, doctors at Shifa hospital in Gaza City said.

The hospital is using a faulty generator to operate essential equipment since Gaza's main power plant restricted supplies due to a lack of fuel from ‘Israel'.
Hassan Khalaf, director of Shifa hospital, said the intensive care unit could be rendered useless and lives were being put at risk. "These patients are directly threatened," he said. "The first threat they face because of the power cut is their low temperature and the lack of oxygen."

One dialysis patient told Al Jazeera: "I am a kidney failure patient. When a power cut takes place, all dialysis machines stop. We will then suffer from blood clots."

'Israel' closed all of its crossings with Gaza on November 5, citing rocket attacks from Palestinian fighters inside Gaza.

Only about 30 truckloads of essential supplies have been allowed into Gaza since the latest round of closures began. About 1,000 trucks entered the Gaza Strip every day before the blockade. Although electricity is still being supplied to Gaza by ‘Israel' and Egypt, it is not enough to prevent regular power cuts.

On Saturday, doctors at Shifa hospital had to abandon using electronic equipment in the newborn baby unit when there was a power failure, Al-Jazeera channel reported.

"When there was a power cut, the generator kicked in, but it had a problem," it said. "As a result, all the machines shut down and staff had to manually pump oxygen to all the infants here."

"We want the frontiers opened and the siege to be lifted, so we can participate in the progress of the world like other people," Radwan Hasoun, a manager of Shifa's intensive care unit, said.

The delivery of United Nations aid to nearly two-thirds of Gaza's 1.5 million people has also been severely affected by the blockade. The UN has said that it only has enough supplies in Gaza to last a few more days, unless the Israeli restrictions on the territory are lifted.

Amid the closures, ‘Israeli' army forces have launched several raids into Gaza, killing more than a dozen Palestinians.

The situation in the Gaza Strip is shifting from "collective punishment to genocide," said Jamal Al-Khudari, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and head of the popular committee against the siege in Gaza.

The trickle of humanitarian aid previously allowed into Gaza, on which 80 percent of the population depended, has now been stopped for nine days by the ‘Israeli' army. The delivery of medical supplies and industrial fuel donated by the EU has also been blocked.

UNRWA storehouses in Gaza are empty and ‘Israel' has refused to let emergency supplies through to the UN agency, which is responsible for providing basic goods to 750,000 Palestinians in the Strip.

Aid from the UN, the WHO and other Palestinian, Arab and international relief organizations are the main source of food for the 80% of the population in Gaza that live under poverty line and the 140,000 Gazans who are unemployed. "People are going to start getting hungry," said UN spokesman Christopher Gunness.

The crisis in the Gaza strip escalated and bakeries closed due to power cuts and lack of wheat resulting from the ‘Israeli' refusal to allow fuel into the area.