Gaza has 24 hours of electricity, water left before crippling disaster

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
16 Oct 2023 21:07
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The WHO Regional Director states that doctors are in such as miserable state, as they are making impossible decisions knowing well that they cannot save everyone.

Palestinians inspecting the damage after an Israeli military strike on the Rafah refugee camp, in the southern Gaza Strip, on October 15, 2023 (AFP)

In an interview for AFP, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, Ahmed al-Mandhari, stated that if aid does not come in, doctors will have to "prepare death certificates for their patients" - as Gaza only has "24 hours of water, electricity, and fuel left."

Gaza is now heading toward "a real catastrophe," he added, which comes as Gazans reveal that family functions like using the toilet or showering are becoming impossible.

As a result of overtired hospital staff, lack of space, and overcrowding, "bodies cannot be properly taken care of," al-Mandhari said, adding that "intensive care units, operating rooms, emergency services, and other wings" are on the edge of collapsing.

"No place is safe in Gaza."

UNRWA Commissioner-General, Philippe Lazzarini, wrote in a statement that most of the UNRWA staff in the #Gaza Strip have been displaced or forced out of their homes.

The official stated that thousands of people have been killed, including children… pic.twitter.com/XgJOTnijrd
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) October 16, 2023

In a chilling revelation, Al Mayadeen's correspondent reported that medical crews have turned to using ice cream freezers to store the bodies of martyrs in the Strip in light of the unjust siege that encompasses everything.

Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz claimed on Sunday that water supplies to southern Gaza were turned back on but that has not covered their committing of one of the world's largest humanitarian disasters and war crimes.

As of now, 45 families in Gaza have been wiped off of the civil registry.

Racing against the clock

So far, the WHO has recorded 111 medical facilities targeted, 12 health care workers killed, and 60 ambulances bombed which al-Mandhari explains is a clear violation of both "international law and the principles of humanity."

A #Palestinian ambulance driver who has been working round the clock to transfer the victims of the Israeli aggression in an Israeli-stricken ambulance breaks down.#Gaza #GazaUnderAttack #Palestine pic.twitter.com/2FK7JGEUQI
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) October 13, 2023

22 hospitals in northern Gaza are housing more than 2,000 patients, including "some on ventilators, some who need regular dialysis, in addition to children, infants, and women," while Gazan hospitals are lacking clean water, and "fuel shortages threaten electricity supply."

Al-Mandhari stated that doctors are in such as miserable state, as they are making impossible decisions knowing well that they cannot save everyone.

"They have to triage the patients who are coming in. They have no other choice. There are too many people, so some are left to die slow deaths," he explained, urging aid to be allowed into Gaza within the next 24 hours before it truly gets out of hand.

The Rafah border, the only non-Israeli entrance into and out of Gaza, has been blocked since Tuesday, following three Israeli airstrikes on the Palestinian border station within 24 hours.

Just today, the area of the Rafah border crossing was targeted by an airstrike, AFP correspondents said, as hundreds of Palestinians gathered hoping to cross.

The US, Egypt, and "Israel" are currently discussing how to allow aid to pass through the border to Gaza, while also allowing foreign passport holders to exit the Strip as well.