Gaza Herald _The health crisis in the Gaza Strip has become a daily threat weighing on thousands of patients. The shortage of medicines and medical supplies is no longer a temporary emergency but an ongoing struggle for survival as Gaza’s healthcare system grows more fragile with each passing day.
With pharmacy shelves standing empty, medical warehouses rapidly running out of supplies, and hospitals struggling to maintain even limited treatment services, patients are forced into a dangerous search for medications that may never arrive in time.
In Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, the bombing of a medicine warehouse belonging to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital several days ago added another chapter to the collapse of the territory’s healthcare system. The strike hit critical medical supplies intended for patients and the wounded, including equipment used in essential departments such as dialysis and intensive care.
The destruction went far beyond material losses. It struck at one of the healthcare system’s vital lifelines at a time when treatment options are shrinking and concerns are mounting over the consequences of severe shortages for thousands of patients.
A Daily Battle With Death
In Gaza City, where rubble fills the streets and the sounds of suffering never cease, 55-year-old Ghassan Hajila lives through an unending nightmare.
A civil engineer before kidney disease changed his life, Hajila now races against time to receive the three dialysis sessions he requires every week.
“Every dialysis session is a temporary lifeline,” Hajila told Filastin newspaper. “But getting one has become a miracle in itself. I feel as though I’m begging for my right to stay alive. Is it possible that the medicine and medical supplies keeping me alive are the very things Israel prevents from reaching us?”
Before the war, his trips to Al-Shifa Hospital for treatment were routine. Today, they have become dangerous journeys. Sometimes he walks for long distances. At best, he rides in an animal-drawn cart because fuel shortages and destroyed roads have made transportation nearly impossible.
“Every time I leave home, I don’t know whether I’ll make it back,” he said.
“My fear isn’t only the bombardment. It’s arriving at the hospital and finding the dialysis machines shut down or the supplies exhausted. That is what slow death looks like.”
His wife, Umm Ahmad, remains by his side, trying to give him strength despite her own fears.
“I watch him fading before my eyes, and there’s nothing I can do,” she said. “I search everywhere for even the smallest ray of hope—for any medicine that might ease his pain—but there’s nothing. Pharmacies are empty, and hospitals are overwhelmed. I fear the day comes when I can no longer find him a place for dialysis. What will I do then?”
Hajila remembers a time when he planned for his children’s future. Those dreams have now been replaced by the struggle to survive.
“I dreamed of seeing my children graduate from university and living a decent life,” he said quietly. “Now, all I wish for is to breathe and wake up to another sunrise. This siege is killing us slowly. It is depriving us of the most basic right—the right to life and medical treatment.”
Losing Sight Under Siege
In Gaza City’s Al-Nasr neighborhood, 40-year-old Ikram Al-Azizi now lives among the ruins of her destroyed home, struggling each day to recognize the faces of her children as her vision steadily deteriorates.
Once blessed with excellent eyesight, Al-Azizi now suffers from severe vision loss and painful corneal infections caused by constant exposure to dust, poor sanitation, and, above all, the absence of essential medication.
“My eyes burn like fire,” she told Filastin newspaper, pressing her hands against her reddened eyes. “I feel like I’m slowly going blind, and that frightens me more than anything else. How will I see my children? How will I care for them if I lose my sight?”
Before the war, she relied on medicated eye drops and antibiotics to control recurring infections. Today, those medicines have completely disappeared.
“I went to every pharmacy I know and asked every doctor,” she said. “The answer is always the same: the medicine isn’t available.”
“I feel completely helpless. Every day I feel the light slipping away from my eyes, and there is nothing I can do. This siege doesn’t only kill people with bombs. It also kills by denying them the most basic necessities of life.”
Her young children try to help, but they cannot fully understand what she is going through.
“Mom, will you be able to see us clearly again?” her youngest son asks.
“How can I answer them?” she said. “I don’t even know the answer myself. Every day I feel one step closer to permanent darkness. Doesn’t anyone hear our cries? Doesn’t anyone see what we’re living through?”
Her husband, Abu Mohammed, works tirelessly to provide for the family but feels powerless when it comes to securing her treatment.
“I watch my wife suffer, and I cannot get the medicine she needs,” he said. “I search everywhere. I knock on every door, but every door is closed. This situation breaks the spirit before it breaks the body. No one should be denied the right to medical treatment.”
“I’m only asking for a single bottle of eye drops,” Al-Azizi said through tears. “Just one bottle could restore a little hope. It could allow me to keep seeing the faces of the people I love. Is that too much to ask for someone living under siege? Is it too much for a mother who simply wants to watch her children grow?”
An Unprecedented Health Disaster
Zaheer Al-Wahidi, director of the Health Information Unit at Gaza’s Ministry of Health, described the situation as “an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.”
Speaking to Filastin newspaper, Al-Wahidi said 47 percent of the Ministry of Health’s essential medicines are completely out of stock, placing the lives of thousands of patients at immediate risk, including those suffering from chronic illnesses and children who depend on nutritional supplements.
He said the crisis has worsened dramatically since October 7, 2023, noting that not a single new medical device has entered Gaza since then.
“There is no MRI machine left in Gaza, nor are there CT scanners,” he said, warning that doctors are increasingly unable to diagnose and treat many critical medical conditions.
Al-Wahidi stressed that the shortages extend beyond medicines and medical equipment to include fuel, which hospitals rely on to continue operating.
“The medicines and medical supplies reaching us are enough for no more than 48 hours,” he said. “That means hospitals face the constant risk of shutting down completely, effectively handing hundreds of patients a death sentence because their lives depend on medical equipment.”
He concluded by warning that what Gaza is experiencing is “not simply a humanitarian crisis but a systematic campaign of starvation that is pushing the population toward slow death,” calling on the international community to act immediately to prevent the total collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system before it is too late.
