Al-Shifa hospital, the Gaza Strip’s largest medical facility, will become a “mass grave” as electricity runs out, Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah said Thursday.
Hospitals and aid agencies have been warning that medical facilities across the besieged enclave will grind to a halt unless fuel is delivered to keep power lines running, while medics struggle to treat patients with severe injuries from Israeli bombardment.
“Unless there’s electricity, this hospital will turn into a mass grave. It’s as simple as that. if we cannot keep the ventilators running. If we can’t take our critically wounded patients back to the operating room, then there’s nothing for this place other than to come and die,” Abu-Sittah told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
The hospital in Gaza City is currently running on just one generator after the fuel shortage led to one being switched off, and some patients could not safely go into surgery due to the lack of electricity, he added.
“This meant that parts of the hospital had to go without light tonight,” Abu-Sittah said.
Despite the Israeli military’s announcement that it has encircled Gaza City, the doctor said he has no intentions of leaving the hospital.
“I have no plans to leave the hospital or to leave my patients. My day involves operating from 8 o’clock in the morning till very late at night. These surgeries are done out of necessity, not out of some kind of luxury. And so if I’m not there, literally there’s nobody else there to do it,” he said.
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