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Power cuts plunge Gaza hospitals into darkness as Israel’s attacks persist

Power cuts plunge Gaza hospitals into darkness as Israel’s attacks persist

Omar Abu Atwa, a 30-year-old driver, was walking home from work one day in central Gaza last month when an explosion shook the street around him. Bloodied and confused, he was taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, where doctors examined injuries to his hand. As he waited for an X-ray, the lights cut out, rendering much of the hospital’s medical equipment inoperable, including the machine doctors needed to inspect his wound. After a six-hour wait in the ward, Omar left tired and frustrated, without an X-ray or proper treatment for his injured hand. This is a repeated experience for patients in Gaza, including those rushed to hospital to receive potentially lifesaving surgery. “I waited for many hours inside the hospital hoping for electricity to return and the medical devices to start working again. During that time, I was in pain and anxious because I did not know the nature of my injury or whether my condition required urgent medical intervention,” he told Al Jazeera. “I saw children, elderly people and injured individuals waiting just as I was. Some needed medical tests, while others kept asking about when electricity would return so they could continue their treatment. The crisis affected everyone.” Israel’s genocide has already caused immense damage to Gaza’s healthcare sector, with Israeli bombing since October 7, 2023 destroying 38 hospitals and 96 primary healthcare centres or rendering them inoperable. Bombing has almost completely decimated Gaza’s national grid, with about 90 percent of power lines destroyed, forcing hospitals to rely on generators for power. Advertisement But an ongoing blockade on Gaza has resulted in severe shortages of fuel needed for generators, which power essential life-saving medical equipment at hospitals such as ventilators, incubators and monitoring devices. The use of non-original engine oils due to the blockade has resulted in generators malfunctioning or affected their performance. It comes as Israel continues its near-daily air raids on Gaza with at least 1,092 people killed and 3,507 injured since a so-called “ceasefire” came into effect in October 2025. The consequential routine power cuts have rendered hospitals semi-dysfunctional and affected thousands of patients and medical staff in Gaza, where the flow of patients caused by new waves of bombings and disease continues. Most of Al-Aqsa’s main generators went out of service in early May 2026, when doctors and nurses were already struggling to cope, leaving the hospital to use secondary generators and solar energy or simply cut back on operations. A Palestinian doctor checks a drip at the dialysis treatment centre at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, Deir el-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on February 1, 2026 [AFP] Surgeon Omar al-Ashtal said medical teams at the hospital are struggling to provide proper and essential services to patients due to erratic power supplies, especially in operating rooms, where electricity is essential. Surgeons and doctors are having to shorten or delay important operations until stable energy supplies are available, leading to serious consequences for patients. “What we are witnessing today is not only a shortage of electricity, but a cumulative crisis that includes worn-out generators, fuel shortages and a lack of spare parts needed for maintenance,” al-Ashtal told Al Jazeera. “The continuation of this situation threatens the hospital’s ability to respond to emergencies and increases the suffering of patients waiting for treatment and medical care.” Intensive care units, operating rooms, anaesthesia departments and neonatal care are the most affected by the latest power crisis. Any interruptions to these departments can lead to serious life-threatening complications for patients, including babies in incubators. Outages of internet and electronic systems also prevent administrative teams and nurses from fulfilling the essential tasks of accessing or recording patient data, tracking cases and communicating between different departments. Nurse Hamza Nawas said that medical teams were coping as well as they could under the circumstances. Advertisement “We are living under daily pressure because of the electricity crisis. At night, the difficulties increase, especially with rising temperatures and the disruption of some services related to power,” he told Al Jazeera. “We try as much as possible to continue providing care, but the current conditions make work more difficult and complex.” Engineer Omar al-Ghariz, a specialist in energy systems at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, said that generators have been overloaded, exceeding their capacity for months. “The electric generators at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital have been operating continuously for many months under loads that exceed their normal capacity, due to full reliance on them amid ongoing electricity outages,” he told Al Jazeera. “[This has] led to significant wear on many generator components and a noticeable increase in technical malfunctions.” Shortages of fuel and spare parts have forced the hospital’s maintenance staff to rely on temporary solutions to keep generators running, but these can only delay the inevitable, with the machines struggling under 24/7 operations. “The greatest risk lies in the fact that the hospital depends on a limited number of generators to operate its vital departments. Any sudden failure or fuel shortage could lead to the suspension of essential services,” he said. “Therefore, we urgently need new generators, spare parts and immediate technical support to ensure the continuity of hospital operations.” Adblock test (Why?)

Algeria and Mali restore diplomatic ties following yearlong rift

Algeria and Mali restore diplomatic ties following yearlong rift

Relations begin to thaw as both countries reinstate ambassadors and reopen airspace closed to each other since April 2025. Published On 11 Jul 202611 Jul 2026 More than a year after a diplomatic fallout, relations between Algeria and Mali are beginning to thaw, with both countries reinstating their ambassadors and reopening their airspace to one another. Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune announced on Saturday that the country’s ambassador would return to Mali, a day after Algiers fully reopened its airspace to civilian and military aircraft travelling to and from its southern neighbour. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Issa Ousmane Coulibaly, spokesperson for Mali’s military government, confirmed in a statement that Bamako had taken reciprocal measures. Relations between the two African nations deteriorated in April last year after Algeria said it had shot down a Malian surveillance drone for violating its airspace. Bamako disputes this, saying the drone was downed within its own borders. The fallout between Algeria and Mali has jeopardised security in the Sahel region. Mali is a member of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), along with Burkina Faso and Niger. Both Ouagadougou and Niamey also withdrew their ambassadors to Algeria in April last year in solidarity with their ally. The AES has experienced a surge in attacks by armed groups linked to the ISIL (ISIS) group and al-Qaeda in recent years. Many analysts argue that such groups were able to establish a foothold in the Sahel partly because of the NATO-backed overthrow of longtime Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The ousting of Gaddafi left a power vacuum that has been exploited by armed groups. Vast stockpiles of weapons belonging to forces loyal to him were looted and are believed to have been used by those groups. Advertisement Algeria has previously mediated peace talks between the Malian government and Tuareg separatist rebels waging an armed rebellion there. However, last year’s diplomatic fallout led Algiers to step back from its role as mediator, raising concerns about Mali’s security and territorial integrity while also posing a threat to Algeria’s own internal security. This April, Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf reaffirmed Algiers’s support for Mali’s territorial integrity, rejecting what he described as all forms of “terrorism”. Adblock test (Why?)

UK police free suspect in ex-MP Ann Widdecombe murder investigation

UK police free suspect in ex-MP Ann Widdecombe murder investigation

The former government minister is believed to have been attacked on Wednesday, a full day before her body was discovered. By Al Jazeera Staff and Reuters Published On 11 Jul 202611 Jul 2026 A man who was arrested on suspicion of murdering former British government minister Ann Widdecombe has been released and is no longer part of the investigation, police said. This comes as detectives revealed the killing took place a day before Widdecombe’s body was found at her home in rural southwest England on Thursday. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Devon and Cornwall Police said a 26-year-old white British national was arrested in Newton Abbot, about 14.5 kilometres (nine miles) from Widdecombe’s home, on Friday, before being freed on Saturday. Officers now believe the 78-year-old was attacked on Wednesday around 11:30 GMT, a day before ambulance workers called police to her home, where she was found dead with serious injuries. Police said they had found no evidence the killing was “terrorism”-related or politically motivated. They also said the suspect was believed to be a white male and that there was no wider risk to the public. Socially conservative views Widdecombe was known for her socially conservative views, first as ⁠a junior minister in Conservative Prime Minister John Major’s 1992-1997 government and latterly as an immigration spokesperson for Nigel Farage’s far-right populist Reform UK. She converted to Catholicism partly in protest at the Church of England’s ordination of women as priests and was opposed to abortion and to equalising ⁠the age of consent for homosexual and heterosexual relationships. She also defended a policy of shackling pregnant prisoners during childbirth to prevent their escape and viewed single mothers as poor role ⁠models, but was unusual among Conservative lawmakers in opposing the hunting of ⁠foxes with hounds. Advertisement News of her death led to tributes on Friday from across the political spectrum in the UK, including from Prime Minister Keir Starmer and from Farage, who described her as “an extraordinary woman”. “She stood up and fought for what she believed in – a devout Christian and somebody with strong, socially ‌conservative views,” Farage said in a video clip posted on his X account. Two serving British members of parliament have been murdered in the last decade. The Labour lawmaker Jo Cox was shot and stabbed by a Nazi-obsessed loner during the Brexit ‌campaign in 2016. The Conservative lawmaker David Amess was stabbed to death in 2021 by a man inspired by the ISIL (ISIS) group. Adblock test (Why?)