WHO warns of Gaza health care crisis due to fuel shortage

WHO reports that limited fuel supplies are being directed to hospitals and ambulances to keep services running.

The severe fuel shortage has exacerbated the health care situation in Gaza, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday, who also called for an immediate reopening of the Rafah crossing.

“Only 90,000L (liters) of fuel entered Gaza yesterday. The health sector alone needs 80,000L daily, forcing the UN – including WHO - and partners to make impossible choices,” he said in a statement posted on X.

Currently, partners are directing limited fuel supplies to key hospitals such as Nasser Medical Complex, Al-Amal Hospital, and Kuwaiti Field Hospital and 21 ambulances, to keep services running, Ghebreyesus said, warning that losing more hospitals would be catastrophic.

“We again issue an urgent appeal for the Rafah crossing to be reopened and for a sustained flow of fuel, food, water and medical supplies to be permitted into and across Gaza,” he said.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.

More than 38,000 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 87,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Nearly nine months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.