As Gaza endures its darkest days, hospitals have become silent witnesses to a growing tragedy. With no fully functioning medical facility left across the besieged Strip, the wounded lie in agony, their injuries festering in the absence of proper treatment, antibiotics, or basic supplies.

Palestinian health officials have raised the alarm: over 85% of healthcare services have been decimated due to relentless airstrikes and a suffocating blockade that has tightened since March. The remaining hospitals, operating far below capacity, can no longer respond to the scale of human suffering.

Inside Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza, the smell of untreated wounds hangs heavy. Khalil Al-Daqran, the hospital’s spokesperson, describes a dire situation where preventable infections spiral into amputations, especially among children. “We are forced to amputate because the wounds are literally rotting. We lack antibiotics. We lack everything,” he says.

More than 5,000 people have lost limbs since the war escalated, including over 3,000 children. Israeli forces, he adds, continue to deploy banned weapons, causing gruesome injuries that often lead to death when proper care is denied. With no prosthetics, no wheelchairs, and no hope of evacuation, the wounded are trapped in bodies that no longer function.

Dr Marwan Al-Hams, overseeing Gaza’s field hospitals, confirms that none of the remaining facilities can meet even minimal medical standards. The recent targeting of the European Hospital—once a vital centre for cancer patients—has further shattered what little remained of the healthcare infrastructure. Fourteen hospitals are now completely destroyed; the rest are barely operational.

Fuel, medical supplies, and even basic first-aid kits are kept out. UNRWA clinics, too, have been severely disrupted. What is unfolding, Al-Hams warns, is not a humanitarian crisis but a deliberate dismantling of a people’s right to life. As the world watches, Gaza bleeds—limb by limb, breath by breath.