Israeli PM Denies Refusal of Fuel, This is the Explanation of the Head of Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital

Children who were victims of Israeli attacks at Al-Shifa Wikimedia Commons Wafa Hospital (Q2915969) in contact with a local company (APAimages)

JAKARTA - The head of Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip called Israel's accusation that the health facility refused fuel "propaganda".

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Al-Shifa Hospital rejected Israel's offer of fuel aid, blaming Hamas for the rejection.

Muhammad Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera that Israeli authorities contacted him twice about providing fuel.

On one occasion, they offered 2,000 liters and another 300 liters, said Abu Salmiya, although he said the hospital needed between 8,000 - 12,000 liters of fuel a day.

"The same person called me at 2am and said, the 300 liters (of fuel) can be taken from a certain place which is dangerous and prone to shelling. I told him to send it or a larger quantity, so we can operate the generator, through the Red Cross," he said as quoted by The New Arab November 13.

"Israel wants to show the world that it does not kill babies. Israel wants to cover its image with 300 liters of fuel, which only lasts for 30 minutes," he said.

On the other hand, the Hamas militant group also denied the Israeli PM's accusations regarding fuel for Al-Shifa Hospital.

"The offer trivializes the pain and suffering of patients trapped inside without water, food or electricity. This amount is not enough to run the hospital generator for more than 30 minutes," the group said in a statement.

The statement also added that Hamas is not linked to the management of Al-Shifa Hospital, "nor is it part of its decision-making structure. (The hospital) is completely subject to the authority of the Palestinian health ministry".

As previously reported, the largest and second hospitals in Gaza, Al-Shifa and Al-Quds, said they had stopped operations due to a lack of supplies of fuel and medicine.

WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the conditions that occurred tragic, where patients did not receive proper treatment, while new patients could not be accepted due to limited space, fuel and medical supplies, quoted by Reuters.

Meanwhile, Ashraf Al-Qidra, spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Hamas-controlled Gaza, said that of the 45 babies in incubators in Shifa, three had died.

A plastic surgeon at Al-Shifa Hospital said the bombing of the incubator building had forced them to line up premature babies in regular beds, using what little power was available to heat air conditioning.

Separately, Gaza authorities said on Sunday that the death toll from Israel's war in the besieged Palestinian enclave had reached 11,180.

Meanwhile, the state media office said the dead included 4,609 children and 3,100 women, while 28,200 people were injured.

On the other hand, Israeli authorities said around 1,400 people were killed and 240 others were taken hostage by Hamas in an attack on the country's southern region on October 7.