Power outages are becoming increasingly frequent at one of Gaza’s largest functioning hospitals, leaving patients sweating in sweltering wards while awaiting treatment. Medical staff warn that shortages of engine oil and spare parts are causing generators to break down, endangering lives.
The crisis extends beyond hospitals, as the sharp rise in engine oil and diesel prices makes electricity from neighborhood generators prohibitively expensive for families who rely on them.
Gaza has been without electricity from the public grid since the start of the Israeli military offensive on the Strip, which followed attacks led by Hamas on October 7, 2023. Israel halted electricity supplies and imposed restrictions on fuel and engine oil imports, describing these measures as aimed at punishing Hamas.
These restrictions have persisted despite the US-brokered ceasefire agreement of October 2025, which ended the full-scale fighting but failed to stop Israeli attacks, ensure the disarmament of Hamas, or alleviate the humanitarian and energy crises in Gaza. Dr. Ahmed Al-Nabris, an internal medicine specialist at Nasser Hospital, said that shortages of fuel, engine oil, and spare parts have forced the hospital to implement an austerity plan that includes rotating power cuts between buildings.
He added, “Patients are in grave danger because any power outage puts their lives at serious risk.”
He said that one of the hospital’s four generators is currently out of service, and the two largest of the three remaining generators are operating under extreme strain. Normally, the engine oil in the generators should be changed every 250 hours of operation, but the shortages have forced technicians to extend this interval to approximately 1,000 hours.
