DaysofPal- Ambulance and emergency services in the Gaza Strip are facing the imminent risk of a complete shutdown due to ongoing Israeli restrictions on the entry of essential maintenance supplies, including spare parts, oils, and batteries.
Fares Afana, Director of Ambulance and Emergency Services within Gaza’s medical services sector, warned in a statement that the continued denial of these materials is severely undermining the ability of medical teams to respond to emergencies and save lives.
Afana explained that authorities are being forced to spend large sums of money to repair remains of the ambulance fleet, despite those funds being originally intended to support impoverished families.
He described the situation as unprecedented, cautioning that any halt in ambulance operations would result in an additional humanitarian disaster for Gaza’s population.
According to Afana, approximately 80 percent of the ambulance and emergency sector’s operational capacity has already been destroyed, while the remaining 20 percent is at risk of ceasing operations at any moment if urgently needed supplies are not allowed in.
Repeated appeals have been made to the international community and humanitarian organizations to intervene and facilitate the entry of critical equipment and spare parts. However, no effective solutions have been implemented so far.
Medical services also highlighted that civilians in Gaza continue to face repeated attacks, including in displacement camps and residential areas, leading to casualties among women and children.
In a related statement, Mahmoud Hammad, Director General of Administrative Affairs at Gaza’s Ministry of Health, said that around 70 percent of ambulances and medical transport vehicles are already out of service due to direct targeting and accumulated technical damage.
The ongoing shortage of fuel and maintenance supplies since the outbreak of the war has significantly disrupted essential services across the territory, particularly the ambulance sector, raising warnings of an imminent paralysis affecting vital transportation and medical response systems.
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