Israel's siege on Gaza forces doctors to make life-and-death decisions

Hospitals across the besieged Gaza are scrounging for fuel stocks to keep the lights on in critical wards and continue to save the lives of the relentless stream of wounded patients.

Serious shortages in other supplies, including ventilators, are forcing medical teams to prioritise the lives of those who can be saved for certain over severe cases that require complex care, said Dr Mohammed Qandeel, who works in the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

“It’s heartbreaking,” he said.

“Every day, if we receive 10 severely injured patients, we have to manage with maybe three or five ICU beds available. We have to choose who must face death, or manage them in regular wards or do some limited care because we think as a medical team, between two patients in a life-threatening situation, we have to give the ventilator to the patient who has a higher chance of improving in 24 hours.”

Many departments in the hospital are plunged into darkness as medical staff allow electricity only in critical departments where patients risk death without it.

'Imminent public health catastrophe looms'

On Friday, the hospital was on its last stock of fuel, but managed to get another tank from UNRWA’s existing stock on Saturday, said Qandeel.

“This amount should last for three to five days,” he said.

The World Health Organisation says Gaza’s Health Ministry is reporting that its daily use of medical consumables during the war is equivalent to its monthly consumption before the war.

The report said “an imminent public health catastrophe looms” in the setting of mass displacement, overcrowding of shelters and damage to the water and sanitation infrastructure.