Power outages continue in one of the largest operating hospitals in the Gaza Strip, and patients are sweating in extremely hot wards waiting to receive treatment, while medical workers warn that the shortage of motor oil and spare parts is causing electrical generators to malfunction, endangering lives.
The crisis expands and extends beyond hospitals. Because the sharp increase in the prices of motor oil and diesel makes electricity from neighborhood generators more expensive than the families who depend on it.
Gaza has been without electricity from the public network since the start of the Israeli military attack on the Strip following attacks led by the Hamas movement on October 7, 2023. Israel stopped electricity supplies and imposed restrictions on the import of fuel and motor oil, describing these measures as aiming to punish Hamas.
These restrictions continued despite a US-brokered ceasefire agreement in October 2025, which ended all-out fighting, but failed to stop Israeli attacks, ensure the disarmament of Hamas, or alleviate the humanitarian and energy crises in Gaza.
Ahmed Al-Nabris, an internal medicine specialist at Nasser Hospital, said that the shortage of fuel, motor oil, and spare parts forced the hospital to implement an austerity plan that includes cutting off the electricity supply alternately between buildings.
He added, according to Reuters: “Patients are in grave danger. Because any power outage puts their lives in grave danger.”
He pointed out that one of the hospital's four generators is currently out of order, and that the two largest generators out of the remaining three are working under severe operational pressure. Normally, engine oil in generators should be changed every 250 hours of operation, but the shortage forced technicians to extend this period to about a thousand hours.
He noted that the hospital's electrical system had been repeatedly damaged since an Israeli military raid in early 2024. The solar power system was destroyed and never replaced, while both the main generator and a backup generator were lost. Israel accuses Palestinian militants of using Gaza hospitals as their bases.
Supplies are running out
Fatima, a patient at Nasser Hospital who suffers from pulmonary fibrosis, said that patients who need to be placed on ventilators or inhalers are forced to wait until the power arrives within the framework of the alternating power system between departments.
She added: “We keep waiting and counting the seconds and minutes. We must wait until the electricity returns.” She went on to say: “We are waiting... we are counting the seconds and minutes... we have no choice but to wait.”
The woman, a mother of four children, explained that her condition had deteriorated since the outbreak of war in 2023, forcing her to stay in the hospital.
The charity Doctors Without Borders said in a statement in August that thousands of people are at high risk of disease and death. Because restrictions on the entry of motor oil and spare parts negatively affect and undermine the capacity of electricity generators in hospitals, ambulances, water pumps, and water trucks.
She added that the decline in supplies forced relief groups to resort to the local market, where residents say prices jumped to $1,300 per liter from about three dollars before the war.
The Coordination Unit for Government Activities in the Territories, the Israeli military unit that controls access to Gaza, said in a statement that a mechanism coordinated with the international community facilitates the entry of motor oil, generator spare parts, ambulances and other hospital equipment under monitoring and supervision.
She added that the mechanism “aims to prevent advanced equipment from falling into the hands of Hamas, and to ensure that this equipment reaches the population directly.”
Residents: A sharp increase in the cost of household electricity
Outside of hospitals, the shortage has affected Gaza's network of private and neighborhood generators that provide homes with a few hours of electricity per day.
Palestinian and United Nations records showed earlier this year that at least two-thirds of Gaza's population of about two million people were still living in more than a thousand displacement sites across the Strip, amid severe water and electricity shortages. Residents say that only a very small percentage can afford private generators.
Yasser Ashour, who sells electricity from generators he owns, said that despite the urgent need for a stable electricity supply, especially for those suffering from medical conditions or serious injuries, continuing to work has become more difficult with the sharp rise in the prices of motor oil, diesel, and spare parts.
Residents said the shortage had raised the cost of electricity supply to homes by about 20-fold in recent months. However, many have no choice but to pay.
Alaa Al-Hourani (65 years old), who suffers from cirrhosis of the liver and low oxygen levels, said that he sometimes finds himself unable to afford the cost of electricity, amid his struggles to secure food and water at exorbitant prices.
He said, while holding a piece of cardboard that he used to relieve his feeling of heat: “Suffocation and loss of life... but there is no way out of my hand... I have nothing but the cardboard, so I can fall asleep in it.”
The joy of Lebanese prisoners and their families was not complete with the adoption of the general amnesty law, as the hopes that thousands of them had placed on the law quickly collided with the decision of the Constitutional Council, which took a decision to suspend its implementation, until the appeal submitted by the representatives of the “Free Patriotic Movement” headed by Representative Gebran Bassil was decided. He reopened the debate on the constitutionality of the law and the soundness of its wording, amid fears that the process would end with it being invalidated and returned to the House of Representatives.
The adoption of the law and its signing by President Joseph Aoun created an atmosphere of relief inside prisons and among the families of detainees and convicts, after those who benefited from it saw in it an opportunity to return to freedom and end years of suffering. However, the suspension of the implementation of the decision dashed this optimism, and placed the fate of the law and those subject to its provisions before a new phase of legal and judicial waiting.
Freeze until the final decision is implemented
The suspension of the law comes within the framework of considering the appeal submitted before the Constitutional Council, provided that its implementation remains frozen until the final decision is issued. Although the suspension of implementation does not mean that the revocation has been decided, it has reinforced the concern that there are serious constitutional problems in the text that would invalidate it completely, or invalidate articles and clauses whose amendment would require long months before the Lebanese Parliament before it is approved and republished.
There is widespread belief that the Constitutional Council can resort to introducing amendments to the law that will return it to the arena of political conflict again, but a judicial source explained that the Constitutional Council “does not have the authority to amend the law or introduce new articles into it.” He stressed to Asharq Al-Awsat that “it is not permissible for the Constitutional Council to amend the contested law, because its function is limited to monitoring the constitutionality of the laws and approving the invalidation of texts that violate the constitution, in whole or in part, or rejecting the appeal in its entirety.” The judicial source stressed that “it is impossible for the Constitutional Council to replace the legislative authority in drafting or amending laws.”
A flaw in the methodology
The suspension of the law is linked to “a defect in the approach adopted by the legislator in determining the scope of the amnesty and the crimes excluded from it,” according to the assessment of legal authorities, which consider this defect to be one of the reasons for suspending the implementation of the law. Legal and constitutional expert, former MP Salah Moukheiber, believes that the Constitutional Council’s decision “constitutes a step that may lead to the invalidation of the law.” While he stressed that the comment “is not considered a final indication of the result that will be issued,” he considered, in a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat, that it “contains a negative indication of the possibility of the Council being convinced of the existence of a constitutional violation that requires intervention.”
Mokheiber said, “The main problem is that the law reversed the rule that was adopted in previous amnesty laws, as it made general amnesty the principle, while criminalization or the exception to benefiting from it became the exception.” He pointed out that “previous legislative experiences were based on clearly and explicitly defining the crimes included in the amnesty, and not on granting a broad amnesty and then drawing up a list of crimes excluded from it.”
Suspending the law does not constitute a precedent in the course of the Constitutional Council, which had previously taken such measures before issuing its final decision to accept or reject appeals. However, there is concern among those interested in the general amnesty law about the inconsistency and lack of clarity in many of its clauses and provisions. In Mokheiber’s opinion, the House of Representatives “committed a serious error that led to a defect in the legal structure of the text, which had not been previously adopted in previous amnesty laws,” expecting that the Constitutional Council will tend to “nullify the law and return it to Parliament.” This allows representatives to reformulate it and correct the gaps in it.”
Waiting for the final decision, the prisoners remain in a state of anticipation and anxiety, after the law that seemed for a few moments to be a gateway to freedom has turned into a pending constitutional file. The spokesman for the Lebanese prisoners, Sheikh Omar al-Atrash, told Asharq Al-Awsat: “We did not expect the Constitutional Council to seriously consider the appeal submitted by Gebran Bassil’s movement, due to the absence of legal justification to consider it.” He believed that the decision taken by the Constitutional Council to suspend the implementation of the amnesty law until the appeal is decided “raises our fears regarding taking and approving this appeal, especially since the appeal is legally empty and difficult to accept if it is approached with a legal, not a political, background.”
Scattering rice to members of the Lebanese army, distributing sweets to them, and receiving them warmly in the southern city of Nabatieh, after the army intensified its presence and deployment there in the past days, began as scenes that had always seemed far from the traditional scene, in one of Hezbollah’s most prominent strongholds in the south. Does this enthusiasm reflect a change in the general mood within the party environment? Does the deployment of the army represent an opportunity to reconnect the people of the region with the state and its institutions, after years of the party’s dominance over security and military decisions in large areas of the south?
The deployment was also officially welcomed; Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said at the beginning of the Council of Ministers on Thursday: “The calls of our people in Nabatieh, Tire and Arabsalim have reached us. I want to say to them: We have listened to your calls, we are by your side, and we absolutely cannot be far from you. We can only make every effort to remain by your side, help you, and secure all the elements of your steadfastness as much as possible. It is time for the country to return to the South. This is the responsibility of all of us, and this is our duty towards our people. The south is the main part of Lebanon, and every ministry must provide what it has, to confirm that we stand by our people without any negligence.”
Popular welcome to the army
The picture of welcoming the army, according to the readings of observers and residents of the region, does not seem that simple. The welcome to the army may be, in large part, an expression of an increasing need for safety and protection, in light of a war that has exhausted the south, rather than an explicit declaration of political transformation or disengagement from Hezbollah. But the mere fact that the army has moved to a position where it is seen as the body capable of providing protection, and receiving its members with this degree of welcome, “may constitute an indicator worth considering in an environment that has long been emotionally and politically linked to the party.”
We want the army to stay!
One of the fruit and vegetable merchants in the city says that the deployment of the army “made us feel a kind of reassurance, because the presence of the army gives us a feeling that Israel may not continue to target us in the same way.” But, at the same time, he expresses fear of repeating a scenario witnessed in other towns in the south, where the army deploys for a period and then withdraws, leaving residents facing an unknown fate.
Al-Tajer said in a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat, “What we want is not only for him to join the army, but for him to stay.” What is required, in his opinion, is to constantly prove the state’s existence and role, because the population wants an entity “that we know is there by our side, and that we can take refuge in.” He considers that the state today “is facing an actual test to establish its presence and consolidate its role, until people give up other options,” adding: “It is true that many have returned to Nabatieh, but the majority here are not completely reassured, and are still waiting for the state, represented by the army, to prove its ability to protect them.”
A desire to get out of the deadly slump
For his part, university professor and lawyer Dr. Ali Murad considers that “the situation that the south and the city of Nabatiyeh have reached, and the blockage of the horizon, whether as a result of Hezbollah’s performance or Israeli criminality; What made the city greatly threatened with destruction is what practically led the people there to receive the army warmly, with a sincere expression of their desire to get out of the deadly and destructive stagnation.”
According to Murad, the continuation of the current equation puts the residents of the south in constant danger, especially since “every time (Hezbollah) refuses to withdraw from an area and hand it over to the army and insists on remaining there, this gives the Israeli enemy a justification to destroy it.” Therefore, Murad does not read the people of Nabatieh’s reception of the army as “just a passing position,” but rather sees it as an expression of a desire to strengthen the state’s presence. He added to Asharq Al-Awsat: “People want the army’s presence to be strengthened and to be better than it was before.” “They are looking for a salvation network represented by the state and its institutions.”
Murad places a great responsibility on the state in the next stage, considering that it is required to “strengthen its presence at all levels, especially at the security and military levels within the city of Nabatieh, and all the regions and towns of the south where the Israeli army is not present.” He believes that what is required is for the army to enter these areas “and extend its authority there, by ensuring that they are devoid of weapons.” Otherwise, the south, according to his assessment, will remain “prisoner of the equation of destruction imposed by the Israelis in light of the massive imbalance in the military balance.”
Abandoning the party requires time, reassurance, and effective performance
As for the political activist and doctor of psychology at the Lebanese University in Beirut, Mona Fayyad, she believes that the enthusiasm that appeared in Nabatieh does not necessarily mean that the people of the region have decided on their political position on “Hezbollah,” considering that “the warmth that we saw is an attempt to reassure themselves that the presence of the army may prevent Israel from completing the demolition of their homes and occupying their land.” She added: “It seems that the people of the region have reached the conviction that the absence of a state represented by the army, and the presence of Hezbollah alone, which is now withdrawing and not confronting itself because it is unable to defend itself, is a reality that is no longer in their interest at all.”
In a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat, Fayyad believes that there is a “change in position,” but adds that it is “not to the level of them frankly declaring that Hezbollah does not represent them.” According to her reading, the residents’ primary concern is “stopping Israeli attacks,” while their political position on the party remains “secondary” at the current stage.
Fayyad points out that the people of the region first want to make sure that the army that has deployed in their areas is “truly capable of protecting them,” and that it will actually carry out the most sensitive mission, which is disarming Hezbollah. She concludes that “completely changing their position requires time, reassurance, and effective performance by the army.”
Hence, the sweets distributed to the soldiers or the rice sprinkled on their vehicles may not be merely passing celebratory scenes. In one of its aspects, it is a message to the state: We want you here, but we want you to stay here as well.
