BEIRUT, Aug 8: Lebanon’s hospitals could stop functioning in two or three days when they run out of fuel, Health Minister Mohammad Khalifeh said on Tuesday. Mr Khalifeh said he was scouring the country for small amounts of fuel oil — vital for surgical wards, refrigeration and incubators, but scarce since Israel bombed fuel storage tanks at the Jiyyeh power plant and Beirut’s airport last month.

“I’m looking for tiny deposits here and there, anywhere in the domestic supply. We can put it in barrels and ship it by lorry,” Mr Khalifeh said. “This way I think I can keep the hospitals running for two or three more days.”

Aid agencies have warned a looming fuel crisis threatens to paralyse power plants, water pumping stations and hospitals. A hospital in the southern town of Marjayoun said it would run out of fuel on Wednesday.

Two tankers with 87,000 tonnes of fuel oil and diesel are docked outside of Israel’s naval blockade off Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast, but they have refused to bring the supplies in without a written safety guarantee.

Khalifeh said rising casualties from heavy fighting and bombing in southern Lebanon and Beirut’s Shi’ite-dominated suburbs were rapidly depleting medical supplies.

“We are taking in a huge number of casualties and it’s increasing. Today we had 50-100 new wounded,” he said.

“We can’t keep track with the numbers because they are constantly growing.”

Israel’s air and ground attacks have so far killed at least 979 people since Hizbollah sparked the conflict by capturing two Israeli soldiers on July 12. Most of the dead are

civilians and authorities say dozens more are buried under rubble.

Israel says the bombing is the only way to stop Hizbollah rocket attacks.

Khalifeh said sanitary conditions for the estimated 750,000 refugees in schools and other public shelters was deteriorating.

Air strikes against roads and bridges — including the bombing of the last main river crossing to the southern city of Tyre on Monday — had also restricted the flow of aid.

“We can’t be supplied only by a couple of planes. It’s helping, but it definitely won’t meet our needs,” he said.

He said a warning by Israel that any cars moving in southern Lebanon could be subject to attack, and bombing in residential areas in Beirut had thwarted emergency services’ efforts to deal with the growing humanitarian crisis.

“It’s impossible to operate in these conditions,” he said.

“Yesterday they bombed one of the most crowded streets in the city. In three days, we don’t know if we’ll still be alive.”—Reuters