In Gaza’s hospitals, the fight for life is becoming a daily struggle for kidney patients as the brutal siege tightens its grip. Since early July, dialysis services at Al-Shifa Medical Complex have ground to a halt after fuel supplies, banned by Israeli authorities since March, ran out. Only limited intensive care functions remain, leaving hundreds of patients teetering on the brink of death.

Among them is Mohammad Abu Rekab, 60, who underwent a kidney transplant before the war but now faces worsening health due to fluid retention and the impossibility of reaching medical care amid Gaza’s crumbling infrastructure. His scheduled treatment was thwarted when Israeli airstrikes struck the European Hospital, further endangering his fragile condition. His brother, who donated a kidney, lives in constant fear as food scarcity, contaminated water, and lack of medical supplies intensify their daily ordeal.

At Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, 74-year-old Siham Sharab is tethered to dialysis tubes, burdened with multiple chronic illnesses and displacement. She has lost both her husband and son to the same disease during this relentless war. Her story is one of many reflecting a healthcare system on the verge of collapse.

Medical officials warn that over 1,000 kidney failure patients across Gaza face an increasing risk of death, as dialysis sessions have been drastically cut and critical equipment is insufficient. The fuel ban has crippled hospitals, making even the purification of water, a necessity for dialysis, impossible at scale.

As the siege continues, thousands of vulnerable lives hang by a thread, caught in a war where access to medicine and basic care is weaponised. Gaza’s kidney patients are trapped in a deadly limbo, their survival dependent not only on machines but on the world’s willingness to intervene before more lives are lost.