U.N. Raises Alarm: Hospitals in Gaza at Breaking Point
The United Nations urgently warned that Gaza’s hospitals are on the verge of collapse, with fuel shortages threatening critical medical infrastructure and patient safety. Health officials cautioned that this perilous situation could transform healthcare centers into literal graveyards—unable to sustain life-saving services without immediate intervention.
Fuel Crisis and Humanitarian Impact
Since March, severe fuel restrictions under Israel’s ongoing blockade have left hospitals struggling to maintain electricity, water supply, sanitation, refrigerated medications, and medical equipment operation. While approximately 160,000 liters of fuel have entered Gaza recently, distribution remains inconsistent and inadequate for healthcare momentum, according to U.N. and hospital authorities
At Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, doctors revealed they are forced to cram multiple premature infants into a single incubator. With around 100 babies fighting for survival and no guarantee of functioning oxygen systems or electricity, the lack of power poses a near-empty hospital scenario
Dialysis units have already shut down to conserve energy for critical services like surgery and intensive care. Blood bank fridges risk failure without power, lab tests are hampered, and air-conditioned operating theaters are becoming untenable as summer temperatures rise
Doctors’ Pleas: Health Systems Crumble
Dr. Mohammed Abu Selmia, Al-Shifa’s director, starkly warned: “A hospital without oxygen is no longer a hospital. The lab and blood banks will shut down, and the blood units in the refrigerators will spoil… the hospital could become a graveyard for those inside”
Parallel concerns filled Gaza’s other major medical facilities. At Khan Younis’s Nasser Medical Complex, daily consumption needs outstrip fuel reserves—3,000 liters remain from a required 4,500 liters. Doctors operate in sweltering, life-threatening conditions—blood drips into wounds, vital systems falter, and patients die from preventable causes.
Partial Collapse of Gaza Health Infrastructure
The pattern is deeply familiar: more than half of Gaza’s 36 general hospitals are only partially operating. Over 600 attacks on healthcare facilities have been documented since October 2023, according to the U.N. and WHO The U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) further warned that without regular, sufficient fuel inflows, critical functions—including sanitation, water treatment, and medical operations—will imminently halt
U.N. Humanitarian Appeal
U.N. agencies emphasized that the impending shutdown of hospitals is not hypothetical—it is a short-term crisis requiring fuel flow restoration. OCHA pleaded: “Fuel must be allowed into Gaza in sufficient quantities and consistently to sustain lifesaving operations” The U.N. Secretary-General and OCHA have repeatedly sought unrestricted humanitarian access, highlighting that interruptions equate to mass casualties and suffering.
Broader Humanitarian Implications
Without immediate action, the breakdown of medical services will compound Gaza’s dire conditions: increasing maternal and infant mortality, uncontrolled chronic illnesses, and unchecked infectious disease spread—heightened by closed sanitation and water systems . According to UNICEF, malnutrition and meningitis risk spiking among children as support systems falter.
The U.N. stressed that fuel for hospitals—and sanitation infrastructure—must not be treated as political bargaining chips. Humanitarian access and safe distribution channels are essential to avert health system collapse before hospital wards become actual graves.
The U.N. warns this isn’t a future crisis—it’s happening now. Immediate, unfettered fuel access and humanitarian corridors are the only tools to prevent Gaza’s hospitals from becoming silent graveyards.