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More than 20 patients have died at Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital in the last two days as Israeli forces continue to raid the facility, according to a hospital official and the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza.

The health ministry said on Friday that 24 patients died over the past 48 hours due to power cuts at the hospital, which has been out of service since Saturday amid a fuel shortage.

“Twenty-four patients in different departments have died over the last 48 hours as vital medical equipment has stopped functioning because of the power outage,” said health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra on Friday.

Muhammad Abu Salmiya, director of al-Shifa Hospital, told Al Jazeera that 22 patients had died overnight.

The health facility has become the focus of Israel’s ground offensive in northern Gaza, with special forces combing through the facility since Wednesday amid growing international alarm about the fate of the hundreds of patients and thousands of civilians seeking shelter there.

Israel has alleged that Hamas fighters are using a tunnel complex beneath the hospital to stage attacks. Hamas and hospital officials have repeatedly denied the claims.

Israel said its forces had found a vehicle with a large number of weapons, and an underground structure it called a Hamas tunnel shaft, after two days searching the premises.

The army also said it had found the bodies of two hostages in buildings near, though not inside, the hospital grounds.

The Palestinian health ministry said the raid has destroyed medical services in the hospital, where the UN estimated 2,300 patients, staff and displaced Palestinians were sheltering before Israeli troops moved in.

Al-Shifa staff said a premature baby died at the hospital on Friday, the first baby to die there in the two days since Israeli forces entered.

Three had died in the previous days while the hospital was surrounded by Israeli forces.

Muhammad Abu Salmiya, director of al-Shifa Hospital, told Al Jazeera that the medical compound has become a “big prison” and a “mass grave” for all those inside.

“We are left with nothing – no power, no food, no water. With every passing minute, we are losing a life. Overnight, we lost 22 persons, [and] for the past three days, the hospital has been kept under siege,” Salmiya said.

Dire lack of fuel

Israel imposed a strict blockade and launched a military assault on Gaza last month after Hamas carried out an attack on southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, and taking about 240 others hostage, according to Israeli officials.

The Israeli air and ground assault has killed more than 12,000 people, including 5,000 children, according to Palestinian authorities in Gaza.

Now in its seventh week, the Israeli siege has severely restricted supplies of food, water, electricity and fuel to the 2.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip, with aid agencies warning of a humanitarian crisis in the territory.

Israel has said it has agreed to a US request to allow two fuel trucks a day into Gaza, following a UN warning that the shortages had halted aid deliveries and put people at risk of starvation. The amount is about half of what the UN said it needs to conduct lifesaving functions for hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza, including fuelling water systems, hospitals, bakeries and its trucks delivering aid.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said earlier that its aid trucks were unable to enter Gaza from Egypt for a second straight day on Friday due to the lack of fuel and a near-total communications blackout that began on Thursday.

UNRWA said it would be unable to “manage or coordinate humanitarian convoys” because of the telecommunications outage.

Near total collapse

More than half of Gaza’s hospitals are no longer functional due to combat, damage or shortages, and Israel’s raid on al-Shifa left extensive damage to the radiology, burns and dialysis units, Hamas said.

Conditions for Palestinian civilians are rapidly deteriorating, the UN warned.

More than 1.5 million people have been internally displaced, and Israel’s blockade of the territory means “civilians are facing the immediate possibility of starvation”, World Food Programme head Cindy McCain said.

UNRWA said 70 percent of people have no access to clean water in south Gaza, where raw sewage had started to flow on the streets.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini described children sheltering at a UN school “pleading for a sip of water, or for a loaf of bread”.

After more than a month of Israel’s relentless bombing and at the fifth time of asking, the United Nations Security Council has called for humanitarian pauses plus the release of captives held by Hamas.

Three permanent veto-holding members – the United States, United Kingdom and Russia – abstained from voting.

Israel dismissed the resolution as meaningless and continued its bombardment and ground assault on the besieged territory.

So, can the UN Security Council stop Israel’s bombing of Gaza?

Presenter: James Bays

Guests:

Richard Gowan – UN director, International Crisis Group

Yara Hawari – Senior analyst of Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network

Adama Dieng – Former UN special adviser on the prevention of genocide

The United Nations was forced to stop deliveries of food and other necessities to Gaza and warned of the growing possibility of widespread starvation after internet and telephone services collapsed in the besieged enclave because of a lack of fuel.

Israel’s national security adviser says the country’s War Cabinet has agreed to allow two tanker trucks of fuel to enter the Gaza Strip each day, a quantity he described as “very minimal.” The shipments appeared to be far less than what the UN has said is needed.

The communications blackout was in its second day on Friday. It has largely cut off Gaza’s 2.3 million people from one another and the outside world, and halted the coordination of aid, which humanitarian groups were already struggling to deliver because of the fuel shortage.

Israel’s response to Hamas’s brutal attacks last month was immediate.

However, it appears that Israel‘s military offensive was primarily motivated by anger and a political imperative to “do something, and get on with it”, rather than evolving clear military objectives, and how to enable post-conflict peace.

Historically, Israel’s response to Hamas aggression is tolerated by its international partners; indeed, it received strong messages of support from the US, UK and numerous Western allies for its robust military response after the 7 October attacks.

Follow latest: IDF ‘close to dismantling military system’

However, on this occasion Israel knows that time is not on its side; as casualties mount international support and sympathy for Israel’s cause starts to ebb away, until eventually diplomatic pressure upon Israel will force its hand.

But, as casualties mount, what are Israel’s military objectives, are they achievable, and by when?

Israel’s stated aims were to seize Gaza City, destroy Hamas, and free the hostages. These goals are yet to be achieved.

Earlier this week, Israeli forces took over the Gaza parliamentary building. Highly symbolic pictures served to demonstrate that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) was “in control” – but of what?

Above ground the IDF might dominate, but it appears highly unlikely that they are in control of the “Gaza metro” – the labyrinth of tunnels under the city controlled by Hamas.

Israel’s second phase of ground operation

Israel has now declared that the second phase of its ground offensive is about to start – and has warned residents to leave southern Gaza.

Relocating beleaguered Palestinians from southern to northern Gaza might isolate the Hamas fighters in the south to enable phase two of the battle to commence; however, is this remotely feasible?

And, such a strategy will inevitably compound – perhaps exponentially – the humanitarian crisis. Support for Israel is ebbing away.

Read more:
IDF warns Palestinians to flee parts of southern Gaza
Netanyahu: Israel ‘not successful’ in minimising civilian casualties

With the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Authority now reporting a death toll of more than 11,000 Palestinians, and the humanitarian situation in Gaza out of control, how much longer will the West tolerate Israel’s aggression?

Already, the international diplomatic language has become far more measured, qualified and reserved.

The clock is ticking and time is running out for Israel’s military offensive. But even when it ends, what will have been achieved?

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Hamas will not have been destroyed – indeed, many would argue that the IDF offensive has been a great recruiting tool for Hamas.

Tens of thousands of lives will have been lost and the full repercussions of the humanitarian disaster have yet to unfold.

And, to date, the IDF military strategy has not solved the hostage crisis.

No military solution to unique situation

Israel might well have thought they had little choice but to mount an aggressive military response to the Hamas attack, but to what end?

All parties know there is no military solution to this unique situation, yet violence has become the default setting for each side’s political masters.

Growing international pressure will – inevitably – lead to a cessation of hostilities. However, for how long?

How will Gaza be rebuilt and a new model for co-existence be forged?

Will any lessons have been learned or is the vicious cycle of violence destined to be repeated at the hands of senior statesmen who, despite their age and experience, appear to ignore their moral obligation to work tirelessly to secure a long-term peaceful solution.

Surely the civilian population – on both sides – deserve better?

“Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it” – Winston Churchill