In the Gaza Strip, hospitals are currently prioritizing emergency cases only, as reported by the United Nations. This decision is due to concerns that fuel supplies in the region may be depleted in the coming hours.

Additionally, UN facilities are struggling to accommodate the 600,000 displaced Palestinians seeking shelter, which is four times their normal capacity.

In Gaza, the health ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, has stated that Israeli air strikes have caused the death of over 700 people for the second consecutive day.

Israel's military claims that its operations are targeting Hamas fighters and infrastructure. This military campaign was initiated in response to an unprecedented cross-border assault on October 7th, in which at least 1,400 people were killed, and 222 others were taken hostage. It is worth noting that Israel, the UK, the US, and other nations classify Hamas as a terrorist organization.

Furthermore, Israel is preventing new fuel deliveries to Gaza, asserting concerns that Hamas may use the fuel for military purposes. Israel accuses Hamas of hoarding hundreds of thousands of liters of diesel and refusing to distribute it.

In response to the ongoing situation, hospitals throughout Gaza have limited their services, with most departments closed except for their emergency rooms, as reported by Rushdi Abu Alouf, a correspondent for the BBC, who is stationed at the main hospital in Gaza's southern city of Khan Younis.

He says this is to conserve fuel to power life-saving equipment, such as ventilators, neonatal incubators, and kidney dialysis machines.

"The hospitals are in a state of complete collapse," Mohammed Abu Selmeya, the head of Gaza's biggest hospital, Al-Shifa, told AFP news agency.

The World Health Organization's representative, Dr. Richard Peeperkorn, earlier told the BBC that hospitals supported by the UN agency were running generators "at minimum levels only for life-saving operations".

Israel stopped supplying electricity to Gaza following Hamas's attacks. The territory was left dependent on backup generators after its sole power station ran out of fuel on 11 October.

Aid agencies and medics inside Gaza warn that more people will die if key equipment stalls without electricity.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, which runs the largest humanitarian operation in Gaza, also says it will have to halt all its operations in Gaza on Wednesday night if it does not get more supplies of fuel.

International calls for increased humanitarian access to Gaza have been growing louder, with the 1.4 million people who have fled their homes struggling to find food, clean water, and shelter.

At least 60 aid lorries have entered Gaza from Egypt since the weekend, but this provides only a fraction of the needs of people in Gaza. Aid agencies say at least 100 lorryloads of aid are needed every day.

The death toll in Gaza has also risen sharply, with the Hamas-run health ministry reporting that 756 people were killed over the past 24 hours.

It said a total of 6,547 people, including 2,704 children, had been killed since Israel started its retaliatory air and artillery strikes.

The Israeli military said on Wednesday morning that it had continued "wide-scale strikes" across Gaza, targeting Hamas infrastructure, including "terror tunnel shafts, military headquarters, weapons warehouses, mortar launchers, and anti-tank missile launchers".

It also said it had struck Hamas's emergency operational apparatus, which it said had set up roadblocks preventing civilians from heading south.

Hundreds of thousands have fled the north of Gaza after the military told them to leave for their own safety ahead of an expected ground invasion.

On Tuesday night, the military said it had targeted a cell of Hamas divers that tried to infiltrate Israel by sea.

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