Palestinian health authorities have said that the only hospital offering cancer treatment in the Gaza Strip has gone out of service after it ran out of fuel amid Israel’s continuing blockade of the territory.

The Israeli siege on Gaza has cut off supplies of fuel and heavily restricted access to food, water and electricity, while the Israeli military continues to bombard the Strip, where hospitals are filled with the dying and wounded and shortages have put huge pressure on medical workers.

In a press conference on Wednesday, Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital director Subhi Sukeyk said that the facility was no longer functioning.

“We tell the world, ‘Don’t leave cancer patients to a certain death due to the hospital being out of service’,” Sukeyk said.

Palestinian authorities say that 8,796 people have been killed by Israeli bombardment – more than a third of them children – since October 7, when the Palestinian armed group Hamas carried out an attack on southern Israel, which Israeli authorities say killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians.

The suspension of operations at the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital means that 16 of the Gaza Strip’s 35 hospitals are now out of service, as are more than 50 of Gaza’s 72 primary healthcare clinics.