UN Sounds the Alarm over Humanitarian Disaster in Gaza

Newborns are seen at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, June 12, 2017 (Reuters/Mohammed Salem)

The United Nations warned on Tuesday that emergency fuel for critical facilities in Gaza would become exhausted within the next ten days, calling for urgent donor support to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe driven by the energy crisis.
 
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement that the UN, with support from donors, was coordinating “the delivery of emergency fuel to run back-up generators and vehicles in order to ensure that a minimum level of life-saving health, water and sanitation services are maintained in the midst of the dire electricity shortage facing the blockaded Strip.”
 
OCHA noted that around two million Palestinian residents of Gaza, over half of whom are children, received electricity for no more than eight hours per day.
 
It added that in 2018, $6.5 million was required to provide 7.7 million liters of emergency fuel.
 
“This is the bare minimum needed to stave off a collapse of services; for the full functioning of critical facilities, the need is 1.4 million liters per month, or about $10 million per year,” the statement said, adding that the most affected facilities were emergency and diagnostic services, like MRIs, CT and x-rays, intensive care units and operating theaters in 13 public hospitals; some 55 sewage pools; 48 desalination plants; and solid waste collection capacity.
 
Acting Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territories, Roberto Valent said in this regard: “Immediate donor support is urgent to ensure that vulnerable Palestinians in Gaza can access life-saving health, water and sanitation services.”
 
“Hospitals have already begun to close. Without funding, more service providers will be forced to suspend operations over the coming weeks, and the situation will deteriorate dramatically, with potential impacts on the entire population. We cannot allow this to happen,” he added.
 
OCHA’s warning came a day after the Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip announced the suspension of generators in three hospitals and 14 health centers, which provide services to thousands of citizens in different parts of the sector.
 
Ashraf Qadra, a spokesman for the ministry in Gaza, warned that more health centers would be forced to shut down if generators stopped working. He pointed out that there were no imminent solutions to the severe crisis because of the depletion of fuel, which will have a serious impact on the health sector.
 
The Gaza Strip suffers unprecedented deterioration in economic and life conditions. According to Palestinian reports, unemployment rate surpassed 50 percent, while 80 percent of factories were closed completely or partially.