(File) A child at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza, September 3, 2025. EFE/EPA/MOHAMMED SABER

Gaza authorities warn healthcare system near collapse

Jerusalem (EFE).- The Gaza Ministry of Health said on Tuesday that the Strip’s health system was on the verge of collapse due to the growing destruction of hospitals and shortages of resources resulting from Israel’s offensive against the enclave.

The ministry warned that the healthcare system in Gaza is on its last legs and that all attempts to save it may fail due to the destruction of hospitals and healthcare services.

In response to the Israeli army’s advance in Tal al-Hawa, the neighbourhood, the Jordanian armed forces, which operate a field hospital in Gaza City, announced its transfer to Khan Yunis (south).

The ministry warned that hospitals would stop functioning within a few days due to depleted fuel reserves.

Israel limits access to Gaza for humanitarian aid, including basic goods such as food, medicine, and fuel, which hospitals use to power generators that provide electricity.

According to the latest figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), only 17 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza are still operating, and all of them are only functioning partially.

This figure does not include facilities that have ceased to function in recent days.

Hospitals in the Gaza Strip are working at one of the most critical moments of the Israeli offensive, with hundreds of wounded and dozens of bodies arriving at centers throughout the enclave, despite suffering from a severe shortage of medicines, some of which are essential, as well as blood reserves.

At Rantisi Hospital, the last paediatric hospital in Gaza City, which was recently bombed by the Israeli army, doctors told EFE that they could not provide food for their patients.

An independent UN commission, human rights rapporteurs, NGOs and a growing number of countries have described the Israeli military offensive against the Gaza Strip as genocide.

So far, more than 65,000 Palestinians have been killed during the offensive, including over 19,000 children. EFE

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