Babies cling to life in stricken hospital

[Scurrilous]

The fate of 600 patients rests on four ageing generators keeping blackouts at bay, reports Kim Sengupta

<snip>

"Even with the glimmer of hope that a ceasefire may finally be under negotiation, the situation at Gaza's biggest hospital remains desperate, with more than 70 life-support patients now precariously dependent on generators because the main power supply has been down for five days.

The 596-bed Shifa hospital in Gaza City was struggling yesterday to cope with the latest casualties of war – the injured victims of the bombing on Tuesday at a school in the Jabalya refugee camp which left 42 dead.

But the shortage of fuel to run the generators, after months of the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, is now the biggest problem facing Shifa and other medical facilities in Gaza. "It is not just a matter of fuel," said Dr Hassan Khalaf, the director of the hospital. "We have four generators and they are old. They are meant to be back-ups, not run all the time. We have difficulties with spare parts, and with maintenance. But we are having to use the generators to power all wards, including intensive care and dialysis units. I heard that they are opening the border for a few hours to let in humanitarian supplies, and that is good. But I don't know what is going to happen about the fuel, this is critical."

The intensive care unit at the hospital is looking after 25 premature babies as well as people injured in the fighting. Around 300 people need to use kidney dialysis. Gaza's sole power plant ceased operating after fuel deliveries were stopped by the Israelis because militants carried out rocket attacks on the crossings through which fuel was being shipped in. This has left most of the Palestinian territory's 1.5 million residents without electricity. Since the beginning of the military offensive there has also been a severe shortage of diesel and of gas in cylinders – used by many Gaza families for cooking – after the tunnels used to smuggle them in from Egypt were hit by air strikes. "We don't have any diesel and we only have about two days worth of cooking gas left," said Hussein Aashour, the chief administrator at the hospital."

more

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.