Gaza’s hospitals are plunging into darkness as generators fail and fuel supplies run dry, leaving patients in intensive care and newborn babies in incubators at the mercy of an electrical system that can no longer hold.
Gaza’s sole power plant shut down in October 2023 after running out of fuel, when Israel imposed a total blockade on energy supplies to the strip. Since then, the territory’s 2 million people have depended on commercial generators, solar panels, and whatever fuel leaks through Israeli restrictions. Those sources are now failing.
“If the current situation persists, Gaza will sink into total darkness,” said Mustafa Abu Hassira, an official with the Association of Generator and Alternative Energy Owners in Gaza.
The crisis is most acute in hospitals. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Medical Complex, said key components of the hospital’s generators have worn down and entire units have stopped functioning due to mechanical strain and the lack of spare parts and specialized oils.
“These departments cannot afford even a minute of downtime,” Abu Salmiya told Middle East Eye. “Consequently, we have been forced to shut down non-critical wards to keep life-saving sections operational.”
Intensive care units, neonatal incubators, and dialysis centers, the parts of a hospital where losing power for even a few minutes can mean death, remain just barely online. Hundreds of patients awaiting scheduled surgeries face indefinite delays.
The unstable electrical current has also destroyed sensitive medical equipment. “These machines require a steady flow, and the lack of uninterruptible power supply units leaves sensitive equipment vulnerable to permanent damage,” Abu Salmiya said.
Israeli bombing of Gaza continues alongside the energy blockade. Hospitals that are already running on fumes must also treat a steady stream of trauma patients from Israeli airstrikes.
The Association of Generator Owners has issued urgent warnings about the shortage of mineral oils and spare parts. These materials are not luxury goods; they are the only thing keeping the dialysis machines running and the ventilators breathing.
“We have endured a technical blockade for 15 years, during which we were prevented from importing new generators,” Abu Hassira said. “But the real collapse began when this war started.”
The fuel shortage extends beyond hospitals. Ambulances struggle to reach the wounded. Water desalination plants cannot operate. Bakeries close. The UN’s humanitarian office warned this week that fuel has not entered the enclave in months and that “the deaths this is likely to cause could rise sharply unless the Israeli authorities allow new fuel to get in.”
A ceasefire signed in October brought a brief pause in large-scale fighting, but Israeli restrictions on fuel entry remain in place. The result is a slow-motion collapse of everything that keeps a civilian population alive, with the hospitals suffering first and worst.