Palestinian health officials told CNN on Saturday that Gaza hospitals are struggling to deal with large numbers of casualties from Israeli attacks and are beginning to "lose their clinical, pharmaceutical and fuel capacities.”
Dr. Ashraf Alqudera, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, told the network, “We have a moral and human responsibility to treat the wounded and sick under all circumstances. We appeal to all parties to speed up the entrance of medical supplies to hospitals before it's too late.”
Dr. Khalil al-Dekran of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the Gaza community of Deir al Balah told CNN that the hospital was now relying for power entirely on a generator that only had one or two days' worth of fuel available. Without more fuel, the doctor said, all electricity would be shut down and emergency services and surgery would no longer be possible.
Al-Dekran said the hospital had treated more than 1,300 injured civilians, and about 350 had died there. He claimed that Israel Defense Forces have deliberately targeted civilian ambulances, an allegation also made by Alqudera. CNN reported that it could not confirm those allegations.
