Sheik Hamad Hospital in Gaza has reported a devastating 225% surge in amputations since Israel’s military offensive began, with over 6,500 new cases recorded, more than triple the pre-war figure. Hospital director Ahmed Naeem warned that the facility, once producing just 150 prosthetic limbs a year, now faces a 20-year backlog unless urgent international intervention breaks Israel’s siege.  

Daily, the hospital battles overwhelming demand, receiving 200 patients needing rehabilitation, prosthetics, or hearing aid services, many of them children and civilians maimed by airstrikes or denied medical evacuations. Naeem stressed that even doubling annual limb production to 500 would be inadequate without Israel permitting imports of raw materials and specialist equipment.  

With Gaza’s healthcare system in collapse, the hospital’s skeletal staff work gruelling shifts to cope. Naeem condemned the blockade for crippling emergency response efforts, urging global pressure to allow lifesaving supplies and expertise into the enclave. "Each delayed permit," he said, "is another patient condemned to a life without limbs."