GENEVA, June 17, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - The World Health Organization on Tuesday 
pleaded for fuel to be allowed into Gaza to keep its remaining hospitals 
running, warning the Palestinian territory's health system was at "breaking 
point".

"For over 100 days, no fuel has entered Gaza and attempts to retrieve stocks 
from evacuation zones have been denied," said Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO's 
representative in the Palestinian territories.

"Combined with critical supply shortages, this is pushing the health system 
closer to the brink of collapse."

Peeperkorn said only 17 of Gaza's 36 hospitals were currently minimally to 
partially functional. They have a total of around 1,500 beds -- around 45 
percent fewer than before the conflict began.

He said all hospitals and primary health centres in north Gaza were currently 
out of service.

In Rafah in southern Gaza, health services are provided through the Red Cross 
field hospital and two partially-functioning medical points.

Speaking from Jerusalem, he said the 17 partially functioning hospitals and 
seven field hospitals were barely running on a minimum amount of daily fuel 
and "will soon have none left".

"Without fuel, all levels of care will cease, leading to more preventable 
deaths and suffering."

Hospitals were already switching between generators and batteries to power 
ventilators, dialysis machines and incubators, he said, and without fuel, 
ambulances cannot run and supplies cannot be delivered to hospitals.

Furthermore, field hospitals are entirely reliant on generators, and without 
electricity, the cold chain for keeping vaccines would fail.

The war was triggered by an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on October 
7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to official 
Israeli figures.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Monday that 5,194 people have 
been killed since Israel resumed strikes on the territory on March 18 
following a truce.

The overall death toll in Gaza since the war broke out on October 7, 2023 has 
reached 55,493 people, according to the health ministry.

"People often ask when Gaza is going to be out of fuel; Gaza is already out 
of fuel," said WHO trauma surgeon and emergency officer Thanos Gargavanis, 
speaking from the Strip.

"We are walking already the fine line that separates disaster from saving 
lives. The shrinking humanitarian space makes every health activity way more 
difficult than the previous day."