Palestine: Israel puts thousands at risk by blocking crucial supplies for healthcare in Gaza Israel blocks crucial supplies from entering Gaza
Restrictions on engine oil and generator parts are putting hospitals, ambulances and water supplies at risk.
Thousands of people in Gaza, Palestine, are at heightened risk of death and severe illness, as Israeli authorities restrict the entry of engine oil and spare parts into the enclave. These supplies are essential for hospital generators, ambulances, water pumps and water trucks to remain running. The impediment of these supplies is emblematic of Israel’s systematic destruction of the necessities for life in Gaza.
In some facilities, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) barely has enough engine oil to last a month and some of our equipment has already been affected by shortages. The local supply of engine oil is so limited that the price has increased 20 times in the last six months. By the end of July, it was more than CA$1,812 per litre, with no guarantee of the quality.
“This is not bureaucracy. It is a deliberate effort to make existence itself impossible.”
Filipe Ribeiro, MSF country director in Palestine
On Aug. 5, a generator at the MSF field hospital in Deir al-Balah broke down. Forced to rely on a smaller backup generator, the team had to ration electricity and only run the operating room for people in the most critical condition. Nurses could not sterilize essential equipment, X-ray services stopped and people with painful burns were left to suffer in extreme heat without air conditioning.
“What we are witnessing in Gaza is not a series of isolated shortages, it is a policy of attrition by design,” says Filipe Ribeiro, MSF country director in Palestine. “For more than two years, we have observed Israel’s policies impairing the entry of supplies. These policies do not merely delay aid; they dismantle the very systems people rely on to survive.”
“Today, it is engine oil and spare parts,” says Ribeiro. “Tomorrow, it will be something else. The items change, but the logic remains the same: reduce people to conditions where life becomes untenable, where dignity is systematically stripped away through the denial of the most ordinary, most essential goods. This is not bureaucracy. It is a deliberate effort to make existence itself impossible.”
Fuel shortages and blocked spare parts put hospitals at risk
In Gaza, most electricity has been cut by Israeli authorities and much of the electrical infrastructure has been destroyed. Hospitals and other essential services now rely almost entirely on generators. Without engine oil and replacement parts, these generators are increasingly breaking down.
If generators stop working, there are no alternative power sources such as solar systems or replacement equipment. New generators or new vehicles have also been blocked by Israeli authorities.
“When generators break down, hospitals are at risk,” says Ola Bardawil, deputy project coordinator. “Newborn babies in incubators, people who rely on oxygen generators or those in need of lifesaving surgery will suffer.”
The entry of engine oil and spare parts alone will not be enough to improve the lives of people in Gaza. But these restrictions form part of Israel’s genocide, using structural violence to intentionally limit access to essential services and supplies. Israel must immediately lift its blockade and allow the sustained, unhindered entry of all medical, humanitarian and commercial supplies needed to respond to people’s immense needs.
More than 90 per cent of Palestinian families are experiencing water insecurity
The consequences extend far beyond hospitals. Currently, people’s access to drinking water relies on trucks bringing water to the areas where they are sheltering. A survey carried out in July by organizations monitoring water and sanitation found 90 per cent of households experience moderate to high water insecurity.
Without engine oil, all transport is at risk of stopping, including much needed water trucks at the height of the summer heat, ambulances, buses transporting medical staff to work and trucks delivering humanitarian supplies. Bakeries and flour mills also rely on generators, meaning food production could also be affected.
One of the generators in MSF’s water desalination hub is already damaged due to the lack of engine oil and spare parts needed for repairs. In June, MSF had to reduce the hub’s use from 12 to seven hours per day, decreasing daily drinking water production from 600,000 litres to 350,000 litres. This means more than 40,000 fewer people can access clean drinking water each day. Israel’s restrictions have become increasingly expansive from generators and vehicles through to routine items including ointments for skin diseases to rubber seals needed for machines to clean medical equipment. The shortages now extend across virtually every aspect of life in Gaza, leaving hospitals and humanitarian organizations without basic supplies.
