The Israeli experiment, otherwise known as Gaza:
The Gaza Strip’s ministry of health has warned that fuel shortage is pushing the energy-stripped enclave to the verge of a humanitarian and health crisis.
The warning comes days after the Israeli blockade of the Hamas-run coastal sliver led to the closure of the energy-stripped territory’s sole power plant on April 9, forcing a total blackout.
The shut-down prompted Gaza’s hospitals and clinics to turn to their back-up generators, which need 22,000 liters of diesel a day and, thus, the medical centers are running dangerously low on fuel.
“Because of the power shortage from the main source of electricity in Gaza, we rely on generators now. The problem with these generators is that they consume a large amount of fuel during the power outage,” Health Ministry’s Director General Medhat Abbas told Press TV.
Abbas said they were running out of all the fuel supplies in the hospitals of Gaza, which would mean death for premature infants, cardiac patients on life support and those in intensive care.
“The effect of power outage in hospitals is devastating,” he warned, noting the urgent need for fuel to maintain the hospitals’ emergency services, medicines refrigerators, labs and blood banks.
The health ministry on Monday issued a statement and called on the international community to offer immediate and urgent aid to Gaza.
It also urged pressure on Israel into allowing fuel into the strip and to lift its crippling siege of Gaza, which has been in place since 2007.