Director says Shifa Hospital in Gaza has run out of fuel

The director at Gaza’s Shifa Hospital says they have completely lost power as the last generator ran out of fuel.

Israel says Shifa Hospital is Hamas’s main command post, adding that the terrorists were using civilians as human shields there and had set up elaborate bunkers underneath it. In recent days, fighting near Shifa and other hospitals in the combat zone of northern Gaza has intensified and supplies have run out.

“There is no electricity. Medical devices stopped. Patients, especially those in intensive care, started to die,” Mohammed Abu Selmia, the director of Shifa, tells AP, speaking by phone over the sound of gunfire and explosions.

The loss of power comes just as Israeli forces are closing in on the hospital. Israel says Hamas has vast reserves of fuel that it is hoarding to power its complex of tunnels.

Abu Selmia claimed Israeli troops were “shooting at anyone outside or inside the hospital,” and prevented movement between the buildings in the compound.

The claim that Israeli troops were the sole source of fire could not be verified independently. Asked about reports of troops firing into the Shifa courtyard, Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, would only say that troops are “in the midst of ongoing intense fighting against Hamas in the vicinity of the area in question.” He said the military takes all feasible measures to prevent harm to civilians.

Palestinians yesterday accused Israel of firing a missile into the hospital courtyard, but the IDF said it was a Palestinian rocket that had been fired at nearby troops.