Gaza: MSF raises the alarm – Israel is blocking essential supplies, putting thousands of lives at risk
The association’s complaint: “The Israeli authorities continue to impose restrictions on the import of engine oil and spare parts – supplies needed to keep hospital generators, ambulances, water pumps and water tankers running.”
In Gaza, the restrictions that the Israeli authorities continue to impose on the import of engine oil and spare parts are putting the lives of thousands of people at risk. This is the warning issued today by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which explained that these supplies are essential to keep hospital generators, ambulances, water pumps and water tankers running.
“The disruption of these essential services is emblematic of Israel’s systematic destruction of the conditions necessary for life in Gaza,” it is emphasised in a statement in which the organisation reports that in some facilities “MSF has barely enough engine oil to last a month, and some of the equipment is already suffering from shortages”.
“MSF is forced to source supplies on the local market at exorbitant prices,” he added. “The availability of engine oil is so limited that, over the last six months, its price has risen twentyfold. By the end of July, it had exceeded $1,300 per litre. Neither the quality nor the availability of the product is guaranteed.”
‘A deliberate policy of attrition in Gaza’
“What we are witnessing in Gaza is not a series of isolated shortages, but a deliberate policy of attrition,” said Filipe Ribeiro, MSF’s head of mission in Palestine. “For more than two years, we have been observing how Israel’s policies are hindering the entry of supplies. These policies do not merely delay aid; they dismantle the very systems on which people depend to survive.” “Today it is engine oil and spare parts. Tomorrow it will be something else,” said Ribeiro. “The items change, but the logic remains the same: to reduce people to conditions in which life becomes unbearable, in which dignity is systematically stripped away through the denial of the most ordinary and essential goods.”
In Gaza, most of the electricity supply has been cut off by the Israeli authorities and much of the electrical infrastructure has been destroyed. Hospitals and other essential services now rely almost entirely on generators. Without diesel and spare parts, these generators are breaking down with increasing frequency. If the generators stop working, there are no alternative energy sources, such as solar panels or replacement equipment. Even new generators and new vehicles have been blocked by the Israeli authorities.
