By Nidal al-Mughrabi, Haseeb Alwazeer and Dawoud Abu Alkas
CAIRO/GAZA, Sept 10 (Reuters) – As power cuts cascade through one of Gaza’s largest functioning hospitals and patients wait for treatment in sweltering wards, medics 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 U.S.-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.
DWINDLING SUPPLIES
Fatima Abu Taima, a patient at Nasser Hospital who suffers from pulmonary fibrosis, says those needing to be hooked to a ventilator or nebulizer 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 Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said in a statement in August that thousands face greater risks of illness and death because restrictions on the entry of engine oil and spare parts are 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 $1,300 per litre from about $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 is “aimed at preventing advanced equipment from falling into the hands of Hamas and ensuring that such equipment reaches the population directly”.
COST OF HOME ELECTRICITY HAS SOARED, RESIDENTS SAY
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 U.N. 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 has become increasingly difficult as prices for engine oil, diesel and spare parts have soared.
The shortages have 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 agonizing, but there is nothing we can do. We have nothing but cardboard to fan ourselves,” he said.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Haseeb Alwazeer and Dawoud Abu Alkas; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
Comments