Every day, Gaza’s Sheikh Hamad Rehabilitation and Prosthetics Hospital greets around 200 individuals, those broken by illness or injury, seeking rehabilitation, hearing support or prosthetic care. But since October 2023, Israel’s brutal onslaught has dramatically strained its capacities.

Amputations have surged by over 225%. While the hospital’s workshops once produced roughly 150 prosthetic limbs a year, current needs would take more than 20 years to meet if nothing changes despite over 4,500 new amputations since the war’s onset, adding to 2,000 pre-existing cases, raising the total to about 6,500, even before considering B’Tselem and WHO data indicating nearly 4,700 amputees and thousands more with spinal or brain injuries by mid-2025.

Hospital administrators have outlined an ambitious plan: ramp production to 400–500 prosthetic limbs annually. The blockade, however, renders this near-impossible, denying entry to essential components and leaving patients stranded between inadequate surgeries, misaligned stumps, and poorly-fitted limbs.

As one father told B’Tselem, even the simplest childhood act, choosing shoes for his daughters, has become a poignant source of sorrow after devastating limb loss. In an overcrowded facility, staff double their workload, while efforts to train new technicians and expand the team are thwarted by limited resources.

Gaza’s only hospital specialising in rehabilitation now stands at the epicentre of an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe. It’s no longer merely a medical challenge, it is a question of survival, dignity, and the right to rebuild shattered futures amid war and siege.