The Israel Defense Forces says it supplied 300 liters of fuel for “urgent medical purposes” at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, but Hamas prevented the medical center from receiving it.
Early this morning, troops placed the jerrycans near the hospital, as had been coordinated in advance with officials at Shifa.
I don’t know how hospital power systems are designed. maybe it’s possible that you could only power infant icus. I doubt it. either the hospital has power or it doesn’t. at least that’s what I would expect. so it’s not a matter of whether you’re just powering icu’s. also fuck israel.
Hospitals have lots of built-in safety and redundancy in their power systems, but ultimately most things draw power from an outlet just like at home.
And that means most ICU equipment could be plugged into a generator, if necessary. There are a few hospital-wide systems that might need to be replaced with portable units, like vacuum suction and oxygen lines.
Obviously that’s not ideal in terms of reliability, but it’s better than turning the life support off. In fact, it is pretty clear that hospitals in Gaza are using generators right now to power their equipment.
so… is the offered fuel “enough”? like I said: I don’t know much about electrical infrastructure. but I don’t think you need to know anything about it to believe that hospitals shouldn’t lose power for any patient, ICU babies or otherwise.
Enough for the hospital to function normally? I really, really doubt it.
Enough to save some lives, if not nearly all? I think so.
By the way, everything I said about ICUs was referring to adult ICUs, not neonatal. So I have no idea if the fuel is enough to help ICU babies.
Enough to prove viability for fuel delivery? Yes.
I wouldn’t count on the hospitals in Gaza having “up to code” dedicated life safety circuits with emergency backup anyway, let alone the ability to have a flexible power distribution system at all. What a shit situation, it’s so depressing.