World Bulletin/News Desk

Hospitals and medical centers in the blockaded Gaza Strip are suffering an acute fuel shortage that is impacting their ability to treat patients, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Monday.

In a statement, the ministry said Gaza's hospitals and medical centers lacked adequate fuel to power electricity generators – a state of affairs that threatened to bring medical services across the embattled coastal territory to a halt.

Saudi Arabia's Islamic Development Bank, the ministry noted, had proposed offering a financial grant to solve the problem.

The Health Ministry cannot purchase the fuel necessary to run its electric generators due to a failure of a new Palestinian unity government to pay operation costs.

The Ramallah-based unity government has yet to assume control of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and other cabinet members arrived in Gaza on Thursday for a cabinet meeting – the first to be held in Gaza since the government was drawn up in June.