{"id":308,"date":"2026-06-04T16:38:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T16:38:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=308"},"modified":"2026-06-04T16:38:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T16:38:43","slug":"israel-has-engineered-a-deadly-shortage-of-medications-and-health-care-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=308","title":{"rendered":"Israel Has Engineered a Deadly Shortage of Medications and Health Care in Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Part of the Series<\/h4>\n<\/header>\n
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Struggle and Solidarity: Writing Toward Palestinian Liberation<\/h5>\n<\/article>\n<\/section>\n
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Truthout is an indispensable resource for activists, movement leaders and workers everywhere. Please make this work possible with a <\/span><\/i>quick donation<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Read more Trump Compares UFC \u201cClaw\u201d to Eiffel Tower, Says It May Stay at White House Forever<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

My mother has been a hypertension patient for the past 25 years. Ever since her initial diagnosis, she has adhered strictly to her prescribed medication. Yet since the genocide broke out, her medicine gradually ran out until it vanished from the markets altogether, with no clinic, pharmacy, warehouse, or stockpile left untouched by the shortage.<\/p>\n

Eventually, my mother was forced to redraw her therapeutic map around two alternative drugs with relatively similar efficacy to the one she had lost. The doses were measured carefully according to her condition. But the fear of losing the medication again grew on her, so she began rationing her doses, taking half a pill instead of a full one, to make them last longer.<\/p>\n

Although the ceasefire that followed was supposed to allow the unhindered influx of humanitarian aid and life-saving medical supplies at scale, it proved to be nothing but another trap. My mother went to collect her monthly prescription, only for the pharmacist to tell her that this would likely be the last refill, as the medication had already been depleted.<\/p>\n

This is not an isolated plight endured only by my mother, but the status quo for 350,000 chronic patients in Gaza whose health, like hers, hangs in the balance, conditioned on the fluctuating status of the borders.<\/p>\n

Faced with a shattered health care system, patients\u2019 survival is dependent on Israel\u2019s tightening restrictions on border crossings. The World Health Organization has warned that Israeli forces are no longer only claiming people\u2019s lives through bombs, but are also endangering Palestinians by denying them urgently needed health care services and medication.<\/p>\n

Israel is willfully violating international law, which obligates the occupying power to maintain health care services, not undermine them nor use them as a bargaining chip.<\/p>\n

Dr. Ahmad Al-Farra, head of the pediatric department at Nasser Hospital, described the ongoing crisis as \u201cthe worst period ever of depletion of medical supplies,\u201d stressing that it even far outweighed the medicine shortage Gaza had witnessed earlier during the genocide. \u201cIt is the worst ever,\u201d he emphasized.<\/p>\n

He condemned the use of the word \u201cceasefire,\u201d stating, \u201cWe are nearly 900 days into a war despite the one-sided truce.\u201d He pointed to more than 2,400 breaches of the so-called ceasefire, during which 765 Palestinians were killed and roughly 2,100 wounded. Al-Farra further noted that around 1,700 medical staff have fallen during the two years of genocide, while many others remain captured in Israeli prisons.<\/p>\n

Bringing the picture together, he told Truthout<\/em> that 25 out of Gaza\u2019s 36 hospitals are now out of service, while 103 out of 137 primary health care centers have been damaged, and medical supplies have totally run out.<\/p>\n

Al-Farra, in a broken voice, remarked that hospitals have become \u201cnothing more than hollow cement blocks, stripped from the very core they were built for: medical services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharing the latest not-yet-public statistics of the exact shortages compiled by Gaza\u2019s Health Ministry exclusively with Truthout,<\/em> he said:<\/p>\n

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Fifty percent of basic medications for noncommunicable diseases like hypertension, diabetes, asthma, and respiratory diseases are now missing. Around 70 percent of medical equipment is nonexistent, while 84 percent of laboratory resources are unavailable. At the same time, hospital capacity has surged by 225 percent. Around 25 out of 35 oxygen stations have been damaged, while 61 electricity generators out of 110 have been leveled down.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The health care system is \u201cin its final throes,\u201d Al-Farra sighed.<\/p>\n

The unending crisis has extended beyond governmental hospitals to the humanitarian organization M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res (MSF). In early April, MSF released alarming reports stating that it had not been able to bring any medical supplies into Gaza since January 1, 2026. Israel has obstructed its vital role in providing necessary health care services for chronic and trauma-related patients, and those requiring surgical operations and post-operative care, all amid a growingly conducive environment for diseases to exacerbate.<\/p>\n

Yet Dr. Abdullah Al-Naami, who has worked in the pharmacological field for the last 26 years, doubled down on the alarming report released by MSF about the unfolding medication crisis.<\/p>\n

Read more RFK Jr. Pursues Federal Government Access to Americans\u2019 Medical Records<\/a><\/p>\n

Al-Naami told Truthout<\/em> that \u201cthe current stockpile of medicines is nowhere near enough for the spiraling needs.\u201d He added that \u201chypertension, cardiovascular, and cancer patients are impacted the most.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNew emergency cases have been rising due to the low-quality living conditions and contamination inside the displacement camps, including scabies and infectious diseases.\u201d Yet \u201cpainkillers, antibiotic pills, ointments, and sterilized gauzes are running critically low. Patients receive their treatment for one month, while the following months remain suspended until further notice and medications become available again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based on the medication scarcity, Al-Naami explained, \u201cthis is why we cannot provide the full amount of the prescribed medication. Instead, patients receive either half or quarter the quantities. The Ministry of Health has even resorted to extending the expiration dates of medications and renewing their use after testing their efficacy. All of this is merely to enhance the patients\u2019 survivability amidst suffocating restrictions meant to crush Palestinians\u2019 health.\u201d<\/p>\n

Al-Naami also underscored the significant shortages of nebulizers, whose absence has ultimately threatened hundreds of thousands of lives.<\/p>\n

Young children are also facing devastating health consequences due to what Al-Farra described as \u201cone of the Israeli strategies\u201d: allowing one specific type of infant formula into Gaza until it became the primary milk depended on by nearly every child, only to later ban its entry after infants\u2019 tiny bodies had already grown accustomed to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuch abrupt switches in milk type result in malabsorption diseases, allergies, and potentially fatal complications,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Al-Farra recounted the story of his patient, Huda Abo Al-Naja, a 12-year-old girl who was in the third phase of malnutrition, immunocompromised, and suffering from severe anemia.<\/p>\n

He said she had been admitted to the hospital four times due to edema, \u201cthe accumulation of fluids in her body.\u201d<\/p>\n

Al-Farra lamented that the patient was \u201ca unique and genius child,\u201d fully aware of her own condition. He recalled how she would even compete with the intern doctors, answering questions related to her illness on their behalf.<\/p>\n

Her journey fluctuated constantly between remission and relapse, improvement and deterioration, until she eventually developed sepsis that progressed into hypotension and septic shock, leading to admission to the ICU. During her stay, she urgently needed numerous diagnostic procedures and therapeutic interventions, including \u201cbacterial cultures, a central line, arterial blood gas analysis, and electrolyte testing\u201d \u2014 all of which were unavailable back then.<\/p>\n

\u201cDue to the lack of the necessary diagnostic and therapeutic tools needed to save her life, Huda died,\u201d Al-Farra said.<\/p>\n

Al-Farra placed the blame directly on \u201cthe collapse of Gaza\u2019s health care system and the complete closure of border crossings imposed all by Israeli forces.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those who survived two years of genocidal war, the atrocities did not stop there. They are now at the peril of \u201ca more engineered silent weapon: scarcity of medication,\u201d as Al-Farra put it plainly.<\/p>\n

He called on the international community and mediators to pressure Israel into opening the border crossings for the unconditional and unhindered flow of medical supplies. He added the need to reclaim Palestinians\u2019 right to a dignified life and proper treatment, which is \u201ca fundamental legitimate right under international law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Mullin Says DHS Would Obey Courts If They Were Not \u201cPoliticized\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Palestinian doctor in Gaza says the territory is facing its worst medication shortage since Israel began the genocide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nIsrael Has Engineered a Deadly Shortage of Medications and Health Care in Gaza - Smart Moving Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=308\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Israel Has Engineered a Deadly Shortage of Medications and Health Care in Gaza - 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