The World Health Organization (WHO) will stop supplying diesel from September 19 to more than 20 hospitals and health centres in Gaza because of a funding shortfall, Gaza Health Ministry Director-General Dr Munir al-Bursh has said.
In a video message posted on X, al-Bursh warned of a “new crisis and further strangulation” at a time when the “small quantities that were available… were barely enough to keep the health facilities operational”.
“Their suspension will not merely switch off generators; it will shut down operating rooms and intensive care units, disable ventilators and oxygen systems, and endanger newborns in incubators, dialysis patients, the wounded, and people with chronic illnesses,” he wrote in a separate post.
“Ambulance services and the cold chain for medicines and vaccines will also be paralysed. This is not a temporary fuel crisis. It is another link in a systematic policy of strangulation and deprivation, pushing hospitals toward complete shutdown and exposing patients to preventable death,” he added, Al Jazeera reported.
Al-Bursh called on the WHO, donors and the international community to take action against the decision.
There was no immediate comment from the WHO on the decision.
MNA