Health officials said 22 of Gaza's 34 oxygen stations are out of service.
Why it matters: The shortage threatens premature babies, newborns and other critically ill patients who need oxygen to survive. It also limits hospitals' ability to keep wards, operating rooms and neonatal units functioning.
- Reuters reported Aug. 19 that 22 of Gaza's 34 oxygen stations were out of service.
- Only four of 30 cylinder-filling devices were functional across Gaza, Reuters reported.
- At Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, maintenance engineer Abdel Qader Oleiwa said only one filling device was operating.
- Dr. Asaad al-Nawajha, head of the neonatal unit at Nasser Medical Complex, said premature newborns are especially dependent on oxygen.
Health officials in Gaza say oxygen production and cylinder-filling capacity have fallen to a level that is constraining care for the most vulnerable patients. Reuters reported Aug. 19, citing health officials, that 22 of Gaza's 34 oxygen stations were out of service, leaving 12 still operating. Officials also said only four of 30 cylinder-filling devices were functional, limiting the supply of oxygen to hospitals across the territory.
At Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, technical maintenance engineer Abdel Qader Oleiwa said only one oxygen cylinder-filling device was operating. "Currently, only one filling device is operating at Nasser Medical Complex," he said. "If this device stops working, women and children will be deprived of oxygen services both inside and outside the medical complex."
Dr. Asaad al-Nawajha, who heads the neonatal unit at Nasser Medical Complex, said premature newborns are especially exposed when oxygen is scarce. Reuters said the shortage is putting premature and newborn babies across Gaza at risk.
UNICEF said on June 30 that more than one-third of essential medicines in Gaza were out of stock and that more than 11,000 surgeries had been postponed. UN OCHA said on Aug. 14 that WHO had recorded 45 attacks affecting health care in Gaza so far this year, and that medical transport was often obstructed or delayed during evacuations.
Those figures point to a broader constraint on hospital operations: when oxygen supply, medicines and transport all come under pressure, hospitals may be unable to deliver routine emergency and neonatal care even when staff are present.
By the numbers
- 22 of 34 - Gaza oxygen stations reported out of service, Reuters said Aug. 19.
- 4 of 30 - cylinder-filling devices still functional across Gaza, Reuters reported.
- 11,000-plus - surgeries postponed in Gaza, UNICEF said on June 30.
Yes, but: Reuters is the reporting source for the oxygen figures in this item; the UNICEF and UN OCHA material supports the wider hospital-strain context, but not the specific station counts.