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Reuters

As power cuts cascade through one of Gaza’s largest functioning hospitals and patients wait for treatment in sweltering wards, doctors warn that shortages of engine oil and spare parts are causing generators to seize up, putting lives at risk.
The crisis is spreading beyond hospitals, where soaring costs for oil and diesel are making electricity from neighbourhood generators increasingly unaffordable for families that depend on it.
Gaza has been without grid electricity since the start of Israel’s military offensive in the territory, launched in response to the ‌Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023. Israel halted electricity supply and restricted the import of fuel as well as engine oil, describing them as measures to punish Hamas.
Those restrictions have continued despite an October 2025 US-brokered ceasefire that brought an end to full-scale fighting but has failed to halt Israeli attacks, secure Hamas’ disarmament or relieve Gaza’s humanitarian and energy crises.

Ahmed Al-Nabris, an internal medicine specialist at Nasser Hospital, said shortages of fuel, engine oil and spare parts had forced the hospital into an austerity plan that includes rotating power cuts between buildings.
“Patients are in severe danger, because any power cut puts their lives at serious risk,” said Nabris.
One of the hospital’s four generators is now out of service, and the largest two of ⁠the remaining three are under strain, he said. Normally, engine oil in generators should be changed every 250 operating hours, but shortages have forced technicians to extend that interval to around 1,000 hours.
Al-Nabris ‌said the hospital’s electrical system had suffered repeated damage since an Israeli military raid in early 2024. A solar energy system was destroyed and never replaced, while both a main and backup generator were lost. Israel has accused Palestinian militants of using Gaza hospitals as bases.
Fatima Abu Taima, a patient at ‌Nasser Hospital who suffers from pulmonary fibrosis, says those needing to be hooked to a ventilator or nebuliser have to wait as electricity is rotated among departments.
“We keep waiting, ⁠counting down the seconds and minutes,” she said. “You ⁠have to wait for the electricity to come back.”
The mother of four said her condition had worsened since the outbreak of war in 2023, forcing her to move into the hospital.

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said in a statement in ‌August that thousands faced greater risks of illness and death because restrictions on the entry of engine oil and spare parts were undermining hospital generators, ambulances, water pumps and water trucks.
Dwindling supplies had forced humanitarian groups to turn to the local market, it said, ‌where locals ‌say prices have surged to US$1,300 per litre from about US$3 before the war.
Israel’s COGAT military agency, which controls access to Gaza, said in a statement that a mechanism coordinated with the international community facilitates ‌the entry of engine oil, generator spare parts, ambulances and other hospital equipment into Gaza under monitoring and oversight.
COGAT said that mechanism was “aimed at preventing advanced equipment from falling into the hands of Hamas and ⁠ensuring that such equipment reaches the population directly”.
Beyond hospitals, the shortage has hit Gaza’s network of private and neighbourhood generators that provide homes with a few ⁠hours of electricity a day.
Palestinian and UN records showed earlier this year that at least two-thirds of Gaza’s population of about 2 million were still living in more than 1,000 displacement sites across the territory, with severe shortages of water and electricity. Residents say only a tiny portion can afford to pay for private generators.

Yasser Ashour, who sells electricity ‌from generators he owns, said that despite the pressing ‌need for steady power supplies – especially for those with medical conditions or serious injuries – staying in business had become increasingly difficult as prices for engine oil, diesel and spare parts had soared.
The shortages had driven up the cost of electricity supplies to homes around 20-fold in the past months, residents said. Still, many have little choice but to pay.
Alaa Al-Hourani, 65, who suffers from liver fibrosis and low oxygen levels, said his struggles to secure costly food and water sometimes left him unable to afford electricity.
“It is suffocating and agonising, but there is nothing we can do. We have nothing but cardboard to fan ourselves,” he said.


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A Palestinian man walks near damaged ambulances and vehicles, amid shortages of fuel and oil needed to run the generators, at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on September 3. Photo: Reuters

Palestinian internal medicine doctor Ahmed Al-Nabris puts an oxygen mask on a female patient at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on September 3. Photo: Reuters

Palestinian patient Fatima Abu Taima, suffering from pulmonary fibrosis, fans herself with plates as she sits on a bed at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on September 3. Photo: Reuters

A Palestinian man pours oil from one container into another near a generator, amid shortages of fuel and oil needed to run the generators, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on September 3. Photo: Reuters

A Palestinian man repairs a power generator needed to run generators, amid shortages of fuel and oil, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on September 5. Photo: Reuters

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Doctors say hospitals have resorted to rotating power cuts between buildings, putting patients in ‘severe danger’


Doctors say hospitals have resorted to rotating power cuts between buildings, putting patients in ‘severe danger’.


Lives ‘at serious risk’ as Gaza’s hospitals, homes battle fuel shortages

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Doctors say hospitals have resorted to rotating power cuts between buildings, putting patients in ‘severe danger’

Doctors say hospitals have resorted to rotating power cuts between buildings, putting patients in ‘severe danger’