How a shortage of gas, engine oil and spare parts is grinding Gaza to a halt

P alestinians in Gaza already grappling with limited supplies of food and medicine face new threats to their day-to-day existence: shortages of engine oil, spare parts and gas. The knock-on effects are impacting everything from bread production to water supplies and emergency response efforts, producing one fresh crisis after another. Over the weekend, the main hospital in central Gaza warned of an imminent health disaster as its electrical generators failed. Dr Raed Hussein, director of the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, said: “We issued a distress call after a small generator that we depended on to support the operation of the surgery operating rooms during the morning stopped working. “This generator used to support the 400 kVA generator that operates in the morning hours. When it broke down, we could no longer run the surgical operating rooms as usual, and unfortunately we had to close them … the available electrical capacity was no longer sufficient to handle the required load.” Al-Aqsa Martyrs, the main hospital in central Gaza, warns of an imminent health disaster as its electrical generators begin to fail. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images The maintenance work being carried was only a temporary solution, he warned, as there was no availability of the materials needed for a full repair. “What is happening now is ‘patchwork’ maintenance, not real maintenance, because Gaza lacks the necessary spare parts,” he said. …