ANKARA

The situation at Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip has reached a "catastrophic" level, with many children's lives in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at risk in the coming hours, the Gaza government's media office warned on Friday.

The media office said in a statement that the ICU is facing “severe overcrowding, exacerbating the urgent need for medical resources.”

“The coming hours will be crucial for the lives of many children inside the ICU, as fuel supplies have run out and the occupying (Israeli) forces have blocked access to fuel for northern hospitals,” it added.

The statement also called for immediate and urgent international intervention to save as many lives as possible, while condemning the actions of the Israeli forces.

The Gaza government said these actions are “aimed at rendering northern hospitals non-operational, which poses a threat to the lives of approximately 400,000 individuals in the area.”

The office held the “Israeli government, the American administration, and their partners fully responsible for these ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people.”

Israel has continued a brutal offensive on Gaza following a cross-border incursion by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.

More than 42,000 people have since been killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 97,900 injured, according to local health authorities.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi