As Gaza’s healthcare system collapses under the weight of war and blockade, 22,000 wounded and chronically ill Palestinians—many of them burn victims, cancer patients, and amputees—now face death while awaiting medical treatment abroad. Among them, 13,000 have already received medical referrals but remain stranded inside Gaza due to Israel’s continued closure of the Rafah crossing. Since March 18, only a few hundred patients have been allowed out.

Zaher al-Wahidi of Gaza’s Health Ministry warned that 328 patients have already died while waiting to leave. With no functioning hospitals left in the north and only a few partially operational in the south, Gaza’s overstretched medical teams are forced to make impossible choices. Bed occupancy exceeds 120%, and vital medical supplies—including oxygen, anaesthetics, and surgical tools—are nearly exhausted. Ten oxygen stations were destroyed in airstrikes, leaving medical staff scrambling to change canisters by hand.

Under a ceasefire agreement brokered in January, 200 patients were to be allowed through Rafah daily. Yet Israel has honoured fewer than 40 exits per day, rendering this promise meaningless. In the meantime, thousands more are added to the waiting list, while newborns, children with cancer, and trauma patients are left behind.

The Ministry of Health has issued urgent appeals for the establishment of field hospitals and the arrival of international medical delegations, but the response remains inadequate. As the blockade continues, many in Gaza see this abandonment not just as a medical failure—but as genocide by neglect.

In the words of al-Wahidi: “If the world does not act now, history will remember that Gaza bled while the world looked away.”