The director of Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital, Dr Mohammed Abu Salmiya, has delivered a desperate warning: patients are dying every day because lifesaving medical supplies remain trapped behind closed borders. Despite a ceasefire that was meant to bring relief, the blockade continues to strangle Gaza’s healthcare system, pushing hospitals towards total collapse.

Dr Abu Salmiya said that since the truce began on 11 October, barely 10 percent of the required medical aid has been allowed in. Over a thousand Palestinians in need of urgent care have already lost their lives due to shortages, while hundreds of thousands more with chronic illnesses are running out of essential medication. “Without medicine or care, their fate is death,” he said, describing a health system now defined by loss rather than recovery. He added that more than 22,000 patients urgently require treatment abroad, including thousands whose files were approved, yet the continued closure of crossings has made evacuation impossible.

Women and children are bearing the heaviest burden. Infant mortality has quadrupled, while maternal deaths continue to rise as hospitals run out of the most basic supplies. The situation worsened after one of the most brutal violations of the ceasefire, when air strikes across Gaza killed over 100 people, including 46 children, within just 12 hours. “The wounded were dying right before our eyes,” Dr Abu Salmiya said. “We had nothing, no resources, no medicine, no equipment ,  to save them.”

Rescue workers describe scenes of unimaginable devastation. With almost no machinery to clear the rubble, many victims could not be reached in time. Equipment allowed in, they noted bitterly, was prioritised for recovering prisoners’ bodies, not for saving civilians. As Gaza’s hospitals run out of breath and its people out of hope, the world’s silence has become part of the tragedy itself.