The health system in Gaza is teetering on the edge of collapse as the flow of essential medical supplies falls to dangerously low levels, officials have warned. Hospitals across the territory are struggling to cope as medicine and equipment vanish from stockrooms, leaving medical staff to battle a crisis unlike any they have faced before.

According to Gaza authorities, fewer than half of the aid shipments promised under the latest agreement have reached the territory. Between mid-January and early February 2026, only 5,831 trucks of humanitarian aid arrived out of the 13,800 expected, leaving medical centres with critical shortages. Supplies of essential medicines, consumables, and laboratory materials have reached unprecedented lows, forcing hospitals to operate with bare minimum resources. Oncology, surgery, intensive care, and primary healthcare services are now facing extreme strain, with staff increasingly unable to provide even basic pain relief or life-saving interventions.

Health officials described the situation as a systematic dismantling of the territory’s medical infrastructure, driven by severe restrictions on the entry of aid and the depletion of existing reserves. “Hospitals are turning into waiting stations,” one senior official said, emphasising that thousands of patients and injured individuals face slow death rather than treatment. Calls have been made for the international community to take urgent action to ensure sustained access to medicines and supplies, warning that temporary or symbolic aid measures can no longer prevent a full-scale humanitarian catastrophe.