Gaza Hospitals Face Crisis as Power Outages Threaten Patients

Hospitals in Gaza are experiencing severe electricity outages, leaving patients in sweltering conditions and medical staff warning of life-threatening risks due to a shortage of engine oil and spare parts for generators. The crisis extends beyond hospitals, as soaring prices for engine oil and diesel make electricity from neighborhood generators prohibitively expensive for households.

Gaza has been without public grid electricity since the Israeli military operation began on October 7, 2023. Israel has imposed restrictions on fuel and engine oil imports, citing reasons to punish Hamas. These restrictions have persisted despite a US-brokered ceasefire in October 2025, which ended widespread fighting but did not alleviate Gaza's energy and humanitarian crises.

Dr. Ahmed Al-Nabrees, an internal medicine specialist at Nasser Hospital, stated that fuel and spare part shortages have forced the hospital into austerity measures, including rotating power cuts between buildings. He emphasized the extreme danger to patients from any power interruption, noting that one of the hospital's four generators is currently inoperable, and the two largest remaining generators are under severe strain. Engine oil, typically changed every 250 operating hours, is now being used for up to 1000 hours due to scarcity. The hospital's electrical system has suffered repeated damage since an Israeli airstrike in early 2024 destroyed its solar power system and damaged its main and backup generators.

Fatima, a patient with pulmonary fibrosis at Nasser Hospital, described the agonizing wait for electricity to power essential medical equipment like ventilators and nebulizers. She recounted the constant anxiety of waiting for power to resume, impacting her treatment. The ongoing conflict has worsened her condition, necessitating her hospitalization.

Doctors Without Borders warned in August that thousands are at high risk of illness and death because restrictions on engine oil and spare parts are undermining the functionality of hospital generators, ambulances, and water systems. The dwindling supply has forced aid groups to rely on the local market, where prices have reportedly surged from around $3 per liter to $1300 per liter.

Outside hospitals, the scarcity affects neighborhood generators that provide limited daily electricity to homes. Reports indicate that two-thirds of Gaza's nearly two million residents live in displacement sites, facing severe water and electricity shortages. Only a small fraction can afford private generators. Yasser Ashour, who sells electricity from his generators, noted that rising fuel and spare part costs have made operations increasingly difficult, driving up the cost of home electricity by approximately twentyfold in recent months. Many, like 65-year-old Alaa Al-Hourani, who suffers from liver fibrosis and low oxygen levels, struggle to afford electricity amidst the high cost of food and water, resorting to makeshift cooling methods.