The Gaza Strip’s sole power station shuddered to a halt Sunday, leaving residents without current for long periods causing among other things the death of an infant

The Gaza Strip's sole power station shuddered to a halt Sunday, leaving residents without current for long periods causing among other things the death of an infant.

A seven-month-old infant died on Friday evening in the north of the Gaza Strip after the generator powering his respirator ceased operation due to the fuel shortage besetting the Tel Aviv-blockaded coastal sliver, Press TV reports. The respirator was used to remove the fluids formed by a congenital lymphatic disorder from the baby’s respiratory system.

Just 48 hours after some 450,000 litres of fuel were delivered to the coastal strip from the Zionist entity on Friday, the Gaza Power Authority said its tanks had run dry.

"The generating station in Gaza City was stopped completely this morning after two days of working," the authority said in a statement, calling on "all parties to take immediate measures to solve the fuel crisis completely and permanently."     Health minister in Gaza Bassem Naim said the fuel shortage was placing lives in jeopardy.
  
"Fifty percent of our ambulances and vehicles are immobilized," he said in a statement, according to AFP. "We are under constant strain from power cuts." He said that in one case a hospital operating theatre had its power cut during an operation.

Israeli officials claim that the fuel crisis is an internal Palestinian matter and that if the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority places and pays for another Gaza fuel order, Israel will facilitate it.