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Gaza’s ministry of health announced on Wednesday that fuel stocks have run out in healthcare facilities and warned that in a matter of hours hospital generators will completely stop working, urging for international organisations to take immediate action.

The ministry added the fuel shortage is "directly endangering" the lives of patients, particularly in the Al-Aqsa Hospital, the Gaza European Hospital and the Nasser Medical Complex.��

The UN agency UNRWA said Gaza hospitals had become "death traps" and reiterated that the increased attacks coupled with cold weather in Gaza is worsening already dire conditions, adding that families in the Strip "are torn apart, children are freezing to death, starvation is cutting lives short".

Only 14 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza are now partially functioning, as Israeli forces stepped up attacks on three of north Gaza’s medical facilities rendering them out of service.

Gaza’s health ministry said the remaining hospitals are facing a "real disaster" due to fuel shortages, adding another layer of misery to patients trying to be treated.

The UK’s minister of state for development at the Foreign Office, Anneliese Dodds, said Israel’s decision to ban UNRWA’s activities should not go ahead due to their vital work for Palestinian refugees.

"There is no doubt that there is no other organisation that can provide aid and services as UNRWA does, not only in Gaza but throughout the region,"��she said, adding "UNRWA has a clear authority and its work is absolutely essential".

The unprecedented humanitarian crisis comes as��Israeli attacks across the besieged Gaza Strip killed at least 28 Palestinians on Wednesday morning.

According to medical sources, the attacks killed ten people from the same family in central Gaza and three people from another family in the Deir al-Balah neighbourhood.

This comes just a day after at least 49 Palestinians were killed by Israel across the Strip, including children sheltering in a so-called "safe zone".

Two babies, one of them 15 days old, were among those killed in Gaza City on Tuesday.

Medical staff targeted

Healthcare workers have also been repeatedly targeted by Israeli forces, with an aid group condemning Israeli actions in the Strip.

The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) issued a statement slamming Israel for “targeting and killing of women and healthcare workers” after a prominent neonatal doctor, Dr Thabat Salim, was killed on Friday.

The organisation’s director general, Dr Alvaro Bermejo, called her killing in the Israeli air raid “more than a tragedy" adding "the US government… supplied more than $18bn in military aid last year".

"These funds, meant for military support, translate into more murdered doctors, and many more murdered women and children. They translate to more men killed, injured or incarcerated, and more families shattered" Bermejo continued.

Other rights organisations have also weighed in on Israel’s actions, with the Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHRI) stating the Israeli military has refused to allow Dr Hussam Abu Safiya to meet with a lawyer. ��

Abu Safiya, the director of north Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, was detained from there by the Israeli military following repeated attacks on the facility, and some parts of it being set ablaze.

Despite a global campaign calling for his release by doctors worldwide, he remains held in the notorious Sde Teiman prison.

"Despite our urgent requests to send an attorney, the military says he’s barred from lawyer visits until the 10th of January", the organisation said, noting the Israeli army is holding information about him.

"Our numbers say that there are more than 20,000 people waiting for urgent medical evacuations. The reason is that there is no active healthcare system in Gaza and hundreds of medical professionals have lost their ability to care for their people," PHRI’s statement read.

According to Maha Hussaini, a journalist and strategy director for the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Abu Safiya’s mother died on Wednesday from a heart attack while he remains stuck in Israeli detention.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 45,885 Palestinians since 7 October 2023 and wounded over 109,196 others in the same time frame. The attacks have levelled entire neighbourhoods and plunged the Strip into a deep humanitarian crisis.