GAZA STRIP (Dispatches) -- Gaza is suffering from shortages of fuel, engine oil, and spare parts that threaten the functioning of basic municipal services, especially hospitals, due to the ongoing Israeli siege on the devastated strip.
The besieged and brutally demolished territory has been without grid electricity since the start of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in 2023.
In addition to mercilessly bombing Gaza, Israel halted electricity supplies and restricted the import of fuel and engine oil as part of a collective punishment campaign aimed at the around 2 million Palestinians in the strip.
Those restrictions have remained in place despite a sham ceasefire between Israel and Hamas brokered by the U.S. in October 2025.
Ahmed al-Nabris, an internal medicine specialist at Nasser Hospital, told Reuters that fuel shortages have forced the hospital to rotate power cuts between buildings.
“Patients are in severe danger, because any power cut puts their lives at serious risk,” said Nabris.
The lack of engine oil and spare parts has prevented the hospital from performing basic maintenance on its four generators. One generator is now out of service, while the three others are under strain, he went on to say.
Nabris added that the hospital’s electrical system has been damaged multiple times due to Israeli attacks, including a raid in early 2024.
Fatima Abu Taima, a patient at Nasser Hospital, said she often has to go without a ventilator or nebulizer because of the power cuts.
“We keep waiting, counting down the seconds and minutes,” she said. “You have to wait for the electricity to come back.”
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said in a statement in August that thousands of people in Gaza are at heightened risk of death and severe illness because Israeli authorities continue restricting engine oil and spare parts, which are necessary to operate hospital generators, ambulances, water pumps, and water trucks.
Crucially, engine oil prices have risen 20-fold in six months, reaching more than $1,300 per liter by the end of July, MSF added.
The fuel shortages also make it impossible for most of the roughly 2 million Palestinians in Gaza to pay for electricity from private generators, as the cost of electricity has also risen drastically in the past months.
Without electricity, many basic activities such as working, studying, or charging a phone to communicate with family and friends become difficult.
On September 5, the Gaza Strip Municipalities Union warned that the enclave is approaching the stage of “total collapse” in regard to vital services due to acute shortages of diesel and industrial oils.
While Israeli forces have killed at least 73,000 Palestinians through direct violence since 2023, the number of Palestinians who will likely die from both the direct and indirect causes of war, such as disease, lack of medicine, food, and clean water, is much higher, potentially exceeding 200,000.