As the gruelling Gaza fuel crisis
continues, so does the strain on local public transport
services, including ambulances, across the Gaza Strip.
Approximately 15% of local public services are operating
across Gaza, whilst up to ninety percent of private cars
remain off the roads, and all of Gaza's 450 fuel stations
remain closed.
For ambulance drivers, the situation is
particularly fraught, as demands for their services have
soared over the last two months due to an almost complete
lack of alternative transport to hospitals. The city of
Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, has a total of fifteen
ambulances serving a population of more than 175,000 people.
At the local headquarters of the Palestinian Red Crescent
Society (PRCS), ambulance drivers say the fuel crisis is
making their work "Difficult and miserable." Fawzi Abdul
Hadi is head of the Rafah PRCS Ambulance Service, and says
the fuel crisis is severely affecting the delivery of health
services across southern Gaza. "We are managing to keep our
ambulances on the roads, but we've been forced to limit our
movements, and now we can respond only to urgent cases" he
says.
The Rafah PRCS ambulance drivers normally
respond to 250-300 cases a month in and around Rafah, though
their work is by nature unpredictable. But Fawzi Hadi says
they are now receiving up to 350 calls a month. "We can't
respond to all the calls now, because overall demand has
increased so much. As well as emergencies, we also regularly
transfer patients between local hospitals - and now we can
operate less than half of the transfers, even though we
sometimes ask transfer patients to share the ambulances in
order to save fuel."
Samir Abdul Hamid Akil has been working
as a full-time PRCS ambulance driver in Rafah for the last
five years. "We have four ambulances which all run on
diesel" he says. "We never used to operate our ambulances on
less than half a tank of diesel, but of course we can't do
that now, although we actually need more fuel, because now
many people have no other way of getting to hospital except
by ambulance." The Rafah PRCS ambulance drivers say locals
have regularly resorted to using donkeys and carts in order
to access hospitals. "We know of many cases where people
have to use donkeys or mules and carts" says Fawzi Hadi.
"Under these current conditions, it is very difficult for
Gazans to travel anywhere at all."
Collective punishment of a civilian
population is illegal under international human rights and
humanitarian law, but Israel has been imposing a crippling
siege on the Gaza Strip for almost two years. In addition to
denying 1.5 million civilians their basic rights to freedom
of movement, including freedom of movement in order to
access appropriate medical facilities outside of the Gaza
Strip, the Israeli siege of Gaza has devastated the Gazan
economy and infrastructure, and continues to severely
undermine the delivery of all essential services, including
humanitarian aid and emergency medical services.
Asad Daoud is an ambulance driver at the
Emirates Hospital in Rafah. The hospital, which has a large
obstetrics unit, receives around 1,800 patients a month, but
has only one ambulance. Ten days ago the ambulance
completely ran out of fuel, and the ambulance service had to
be temporarily suspended. "The situation is miserable" says
Asad Daoud. "We used to be able to deliver a good standard
of service to our patients. But these conditions are
extremely difficult because we do not have sufficient fuel
in Gaza. I regularly transfer patients to the European
Hospital in Khan Yunis, which is only seven kilometres from
here. But today I don't still have enough diesel in the
ambulance to drive to the European hospital and back here
again." He says the Emirates hospital ambulance service is
now operating "On a day-to-day basis."
The hospital Director, Dr Khamid Se'am,
points out that the Emirates hospital does not have an
intensive care unit, and therefore needs to be able to
transfer critically ill patients immediately. "Up to twenty
babies a day are born here" he says, "and if they need
specialist care we have to transfer them to the European
hospital urgently."
The hospital Nursing Director, Saleh
Al-Hams, reiterates that patients, including pregnant women,
are arriving at the hospital on donkeys and carts, but
stresses that all aspects of health care in Gaza are being
affected. "Patients now come to our hospital any way they
can" he says. "We are facing problems transferring patients,
getting hold of emergency blood supplies, and sending our
doctors out on emergency calls.
The bottom line is that patients' lives
in Gaza are being put at risk."
