ICU patients’ lives at risk in Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Hospital amid Israel’s war 

Israel’s more than two-year genocidal war has decimated Gaza‘s health system, as medical personnel and doctors struggle to treat patients with limited and damaged equipment, with a “ceasefire” doing nothing to ease the peril and suffering the ill face.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, more than 1,700 healthcare workers – including doctors, nurses and paramedics – have been killed since Israel’s war began. The United Nations has accused Israel of deliberately targeting Gaza’s health facilities and killing medical personnel to destroy the besieged enclave’s healthcare system.

All medical facilities have been damaged or destroyed

Doctors at Al-Aqsa Hospital, in central Gaza, have been appealing for urgent intervention, as both of the medical facility’s main generators no longer function.

The situation is extremely dire, said Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Gaza City.

“Generators are now seen as the heartbeat of every hospital here [in Gaza] … as they power ventilators, incubators, surgical theatres and dialysis machines.

“But now these lifelines are breaking down,” said Abu Azzoum, with the lives of many critically ill patients in the intensive care unit hanging in the balance.

The hospital lacks the fuel and essential spare parts needed to keep the generators going, Abu Azzoum added.

“Without them [the generators], the healthcare system could easily collapse.”

The hospital now only has “two small backup generators that medical teams describe to be completely unreliable to sustaining critical life-saving services and departments,” said Abu Azzoum. They may also shut down at any moment due to a lack of fuel and spare parts.

It is possible that in the coming hours the hospital will significantly ration electricity so that critical wards can be prioritised, he noted, adding: “This crisis will extend” if no spare parts or oil can be brought into Gaza.

Despite a United States-backed “ceasefire” in place since October, Israel continues to violate its truce agreement daily, with attacks and by failing to allow the free flow of agreed quantities of medical aid trucks and humanitarian assistance into Gaza.

Nearly 600 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since the October 10 ceasefire alone.

This has deepened what the Health Ministry has described as a critical and ongoing health emergency, with the majority of the enclave’s hospitals out of service, medication shortages and a desperate lack of equipment.

There is also a critical shortage of staff, as Israel continues to hold 95 Palestinian doctors and medical workers, including 80 from Gaza.

More than  72,000 Palestinians have been killed and 171,000 wounded in attacks in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza since October 2023.