No ambulances left working in north Gaza, Palestinian Red Crescent says

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said on Friday that none of their ambulances in north Gaza are working, due to having no fuel to operate them amid ongoing Israeli attacks and bombardment.

Gaza has had limited fuel resources since Israel imposed a siege on the Strip at the start of the war on 7 October 2023, where electricity, water, fuel and aid as well as food were cut off.

PRCS spokesperson Raed Al-Nams told the Anadolu news agency that there were no more ambulances working in north Gaza in an interview, as Israel ramped up its ground invasion of the area.

"Six ambulances are completely out of service due to fuel shortages because of Israel’s prevention of any fuel from entering the northern Gaza Strip as part of the strict siege it imposes there," Al-Nams said.

He explained that this has caused a "paralysis in the ability to provide emergency services to the injured and sick there".

PRCS have repeatedly stated that over the last year, the Israeli army has deliberately targeted their ambulances and has more recently obstructed the evacuation of around 80 patients from hospitals in the north who were set to move to hospitals in Gaza City and in the south.

"The association has brought six additional ambulances into the northern Gaza Strip in the past 48 hours to evacuate 80 patients, but the crisis is still ongoing, and the evacuation has not taken place," Al-Nams said, adding there is a severe shortage of medical equipment, fuel and medicines in the north.

According to Maher Shamiya, the assistant undersecretary of the ministry of health, the Israeli army did not allow a World Health Organisation delegation tasked with evacuating the intensive care patients and children in the north to reach there.

"Since last Sunday, the Israeli army also prevented fuel trucks from entering hospitals in Gaza and the north for the fifth time in a row," he said.

Al-Nims said the humanitarian situation in the north is now critical, with water, food and medicine scarce, and residents not allowed to leave the area. If they do, he said, they are targeted with shelling and gunfire by Israeli forces.

On Friday, Gaza’s government media office said the hospitals in north Gaza have reached "catastrophic levels", with children who are in intensive care at risk.

The lives of around 400,000 people are at risk due to ferocious Israeli attacks and their impact on hospitals and emergency services, the media office added.

Earlier this week, the Ministry of Health in Gaza said the Israeli army had warned the Kamal Adwan, Indonesian and Al-Awda hospitals to evacuate all their staff and patients, threatening to “kill, destroy and arrest”.

For a week now, the Israeli army has ramped up its ground attacks on north Gaza, specifically in areas such as Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun and not allowing anyone to enter or exit.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 42,175 Palestinians since October 2023, and wounded at least 98,336 others in the same time frame.

The war on Gaza has had devastating consequences on the medical sector, utterly devastating the territory and plunging it into a deep humanitarian crisis.