GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Gaza’s electricity cuts have increased to more than 21 hours a day since Israel destroyed most of the electrical transformers on July 17 — the day it announced the beginning of its ground offensive into the Gaza Strip. The power outages constitute an additional danger to locals, particularly in the health sector while hospitals work overtime to keep up with the high number of casualties from Israel’s continued bombardment.

Bassam al-Hamadin, the general manager of engineering and maintenance at the Ministry of Health in Gaza, said that the power outage in the Gaza Strip has been continuing for nearly five days. Government electricity supply has been cut off for a number of hospitals.

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Hamadin said that hospital staff had to work via electric generators all that time. “Three days ago, the electricity came back to some hospitals, but the problem remains at the Nasser medical compound and at the European hospital in the city of Khan Yunis. [Those two hospitals] are using generators all the time due to a lack of electricity and the destruction of the network adjacent to the two hospitals,” he said.

The power outage poses a great danger to medical services, especially since generators in hospitals cannot operate for extended periods. The generators also deplete fuel stocks at the hospitals.