Gaza hospital to close due to fuel shortfall

The Abu Yusuf Al-Najjar Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip will cease functioning within nine days due to a lack of fuel needed for its electricity generators, Gaza’s Health Ministry warned today.

In a statement, the ministry said that if health services are halted at the Rafah-based hospital 250,000 people could be affected.

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Roughly 400 patients regularly visit the hospital to receive vital medical treatment, including dialysis, the ministry said.

In recent weeks, the ministry has repeatedly warned of the impending collapse of Gaza’s local health sector due to a chronic shortage of fuel needed to keep hospitals’ emergency generators up and running.

Home to some two million people, the Gaza Strip has a total of 13 government-run hospitals and 54 primary healthcare centres, which together account for roughly 95 per cent of all health services in the coastal enclave.

READ: Gaza hospitals to stop services over fuel crisis

Gaza is suffering from an acute shortage of electricity as a result of the 11-year Israeli imposed siege. Both Egypt and the Palestinian Authority have supported the blockage by imposing further limitations on the Strip.