Desperately needed fuel finally reaches Gaza

The International Committee of the Red Cross today supplied 150,000 litres of desperately-needed fuel to the ministry of health in the Gaza Strip.

Gaza has been enduring severe power cuts since the Gaza power plant stopped operations on the 13th due to lack of fuel. Gisha (Legal Centre for Freedom of Movement in Gaza) reports that:

‘Until recently, most fuel entered the Gaza Strip via the tunnels, however, as of the 13th February, it became almost impossible to find anything other than small quantities of relatively high-priced gasoline (benzene) which enter from Israel at 7.11 NIS per litre.  The fuel from Egypt is less expensive but, as the current situation indicates, supply is unreliable and unstable.

In the two weeks before the plant shut down, the amount of all kinds of fuel entering Gaza via the tunnels dropped to approximately 350,000 litres per day – a third of what had entered previously.’

Gisha went on to report last weekend that the supply of reserve fuel in the Strip was running out: ‘About 72% of the fuel supplies of all hospitals in Gaza have already run out and the minister of health in the Strip has warned that hospital generators were expected to stop working today’ it stated.

The following day MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians) reported that the shortage, if it continued, would result in the following:

-Cancelling surgeries

-Stopping oxygen supplies that rely on electricity

-Closing the dialysis unit

-Stopping the central heating at the hospitals which will impact on the patients in the neonatal and Intensive Care wards

-The storage of blood units and plasma at the blood bank and vaccinations at the Primary health care centres are affected.

The shortage has also affected the Al Ahli Hospital which Amos Trust supports. Director of the Hospital, Suhaila Tarazi, told us that because of the power cuts, they had limited the number of surgeries they could perform each day and had had to stop using the heating system. Find out more about the hospital here.

However, Ma’an reports that, the 150,000 litres of fuel supplied today by The International Committee of the Red Cross will help ensure that 13 hospitals can maintain essential services for the next ten days.