{"id":29936,"date":"2019-01-20T22:22:07","date_gmt":"2019-01-20T22:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=29936"},"modified":"2019-01-20T22:22:07","modified_gmt":"2019-01-20T22:22:07","slug":"childrens-lives-in-danger-amid-gaza-fuel-shortage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=29936","title":{"rendered":"Children’s lives ‘in danger’ amid Gaza fuel shortage"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gaza, Palestine<\/strong> – Gaza’s health ministry has made an urgent appeal for help amid an ongoing fuel crisis in the coastal territory, warning of a “catastrophic situation” at its hospitals, including at a children’s facility.<\/p>\n

Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesperson of Gaza’s health ministry, said five hospitals in the Palestinian territory would stop operating within hours, because generators are unable to operate due to the fuel shortage.<\/p>\n

Last week, Beit Hanoun hospital in northern Gaza stopped operating.<\/p>\n

“The lives of hundreds of patients in Gaza hospitals are under a threat of dire consequences,” al-Qidra said.<\/p>\n

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Electricity shortage may close Palestine’s hospitals<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Due to cold weather and increasing hours of electricity cuts, fuel consumption has increased, leaving stocks in the five hospitals down to 17 percent, al-Qidra said.<\/p>\n

“The austerity measures taken by the ministry are in their final moments,” he said.<\/p>\n

At the al-Rantisi hospital, Sufian Salem was waiting with his one-year old child, Mohammed, who has a breathing problem.<\/p>\n

“He is my youngest child. He always suffers of shortness of breath with his face turning blue, so we have to rush to the hospital at any time,” Salem, 36, said.<\/p>\n

The father of five said he is unable to afford a special breathing device for his son to use at home.<\/p>\n

“We feel very concerned due to the news of fuel crisis in hospitals. It’s a disaster. If the hospital stopped, where we would go? All patient children would die, not only my child,” he said.<\/p>\n

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One-and-a-half year old Osama Jundiah resembles a newborn due to his kidney problem [Maram Humaid\/Al Jazeera]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In another corner of the hospital, Umm Karam al-Hajj was also worried about her child, Mohammed, two, who suffers from kidney failure and needs dialysis every four days.<\/span><\/p>\n

“My son’s life depends on this device as it operates as a kidney for him,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I spend between five to seven hours a day in the hospital with my son for the dialysis,” she said, adding that the fuel shortage could threaten his son’s life.<\/p>\n

“To have a sick child is a great pressure; but it doubled with the dire situation in Gaza and the many crises threatening the patients,” she said.<\/p>\n

Umm Malek, 34, is similarly worried about her child, Osama, who, at one-and-a-half, still looks like a newborn.<\/p>\n

“My child suffers from delayed growth due to kidney failure,” she said. “He cannot eat, and only the milk keeps him alive,” she said.<\/p>\n

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Sufian Salem frequently rushes his son, Mohammed, to the hospital due to breathing problems [Maram Humaid\/Al Jazeera]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Al-Qidra, the health ministry official, said that at al-Rantisi hospital, at least 45 children are being admitted for kidney problems, and over 100 children are being cared for at nurseries in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Across Gaza, more than 250 patients also face operations, including Caesarean births, he said.<\/p>\n

“We warn of serious repercussions due to the continued fuel crisis in Gaza,” al-Qidra said, as he appealed to the international community for help.<\/p>\n

“If the fuel is not supplied, we will be facing a heartbreaking health catastrophe.”<\/p>\n

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) has also appealed to the Palestinian Authority to intervene and deliver fuel to keep the generators at hospitals from running out of power.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gaza, Palestine – Gaza’s health ministry has made an urgent appeal for help amid an ongoing fuel crisis in the coastal territory, warning of a “catastrophic situation” at its hospitals, including at a children’s facility. Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesperson of Gaza’s health ministry, said five hospitals in the Palestinian territory would stop operating within hours, because…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":29937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}