Gaza Herald — Medical laboratories and blood banks across the Gaza Strip have entered a fatal operational crisis as essential diagnostic testing materials and blood-screening supplies are completely depleted. Under Israel’s relentless war and blockade, the healthcare system’s foundation is collapsing, stripping doctors of the baseline tools needed to diagnose diseases, monitor critical cases, and perform life-saving surgeries.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health warns that the total depletion of essential operating supplies has paralyzed the initial stages of medical evaluation, putting laboratories at risk of a complete shutdown and directly threatening the lives of thousands of wounded and sick Palestinians.
According to a monthly report from the Laboratory and Blood Bank Department, 76 percent of essential laboratory testing materials are entirely out of stock across the enclave. This complete depletion deprives medical staff of fundamental diagnostic tools, including complete blood counts (CBC), blood gas analysis, clinical chemistry, hormone testing, bacterial cultures, and immunological tests, while the laboratory consumables required to run diagnostic machinery remain unavailable.
Deprived of accurate, timely lab results, physicians are forced to delay or cancel urgent surgeries, while patients in intensive care units face grave risks as doctors lose the ability to monitor vital signs and treatment responses.
Blood Bank Paralysis Threatens Surgical Patients and Malnourished Donors
The crisis extends directly into Gaza’s blood banks, where the total lack of screening kits and processing supplies threatens to halt blood transfusions entirely.
Without functional testing to verify that blood units are safe, emergency transfusions for victims of Israeli strikes, women experiencing childbirth complications, and surgical patients have become extraordinarily dangerous. The situation is equally critical for cancer, kidney, and chronic disease patients who rely on regular lab work to monitor organ function. Without early detection tools, medical deterioration goes unnoticed, exposing vulnerable patients to fatal complications.
The healthcare collapse is further compounded by physical destruction and severe malnutrition across the population. Data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) shows that only 47 percent of Gaza’s healthcare facilities remain even partially operational.
Furthermore, 52 percent of the Strip’s laboratory equipment has been destroyed by Israeli bombardment, while 30 percent of remaining machinery suffers from constant breakdowns with zero spare parts available for repairs. Meanwhile, widespread famine has severely weakened potential local blood donors, rendering most Palestinians physically unable to donate due to severe acute malnutrition.
Over 74,600 Palestinians Slain as Healthcare Collapse Accelerates Fatalities
The Ministry of Health renewed its urgent appeal to international humanitarian organizations to pressure Israeli authorities to allow immediate shipments of laboratory reagents, blood-screening kits, and diagnostic consumables into Gaza. Health officials emphasized that the continued blockade on basic laboratory supplies directly causes preventable civilian deaths across every remaining hospital in the enclave.
Concurrently, Gaza’s Ministry of Health announced that Israeli ceasefire violations have killed 1,599 Palestinians and injured 5,774 others since October 11, 2025, with rescue teams recovering 847 bodies from beneath the rubble. These casualties bring the cumulative toll of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza to 74,615 Palestinians killed and 175,899 injured, underscoring how the systematic destruction of diagnostic infrastructure serves as an active instrument of mass mortality.
