Doctors in Gaza warn that the health system is on the brink of total failure, with patients dying every day as they wait for permission to leave the Strip for urgent treatment. Medical officials say that more than a thousand people have lost their lives in recent months simply because the border crossings remained shut, despite their cases being fully documented and approved for transfer abroad. Many of those who died were cancer patients, children or individuals with life-threatening injuries sustained during the ongoing genocidal war.

Health workers describe a system that can no longer function: essential medicines have run out, surgical supplies are scarce, and hospitals operate with only fragments of the equipment they once relied on. Tens of thousands of wounded people require complex operations that Gaza’s remaining facilities can no longer perform. Doctors report that even basic items, such as gauze, antibiotics and intravenous fluids, exist in quantities too small to meet daily needs, leaving patients reliant on improvised care in overcrowded wards.

Large convoys of medical relief remain stalled outside Gaza, unable to enter. According to medical officials, thousands of lorries loaded with life-saving supplies are waiting for permission to cross, while consumer products with no relevance to emergency care have been allowed in instead. Health staff describe this contrast as a deliberate restriction that worsens the humanitarian crisis, noting that the ceasefire has brought little to no change in what hospitals are actually receiving.

The human toll continues to climb. After two years of Israeli attacks, tens of thousands have been killed and many more injured, overwhelming every remaining medical centre in the Strip. With the vast majority of health infrastructure destroyed and fuel supplies exhausted, doctors warn that without immediate access to equipment, medicine and evacuation routes, the number of preventable deaths will rise sharply in the coming days.