Gaza Herald- The Gaza Strip has run out of wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs, leaving thousands of disabled people without vital mobility aids, according to the territory’s Ministry of Health.
The Health Ministry’s director-general confirmed that the shortages are total, with no mobility devices available for new amputees, war-wounded patients, or those living with long-term disabilities. The announcement underscores the dire collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system after nearly two years of war.
Health Sector in Ruins
Since the conflict erupted in October 2023, Gaza’s health sector has been systematically devastated. More than 84% of health facilities have been damaged or destroyed, representing an estimated US$ 554 million in losses, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
As of May 2024, just 17 of the territory’s 36 hospitals were partially operational. By mid-2025, that figure had inched up only slightly to 19, most offering little more than basic emergency care.
The WHO has recorded 697 separate attacks on healthcare since the war began, including strikes on hospitals, clinics, ambulances, and medical staff. At least 986 medical workers have been killed in Gaza, part of what health experts warn is a global pattern of “healthocide,” — the deliberate targeting of health services in conflict zones.
Shortages and Shutdowns
Fuel, electricity, and medicine are critically scarce. The lack of power has left incubators, dialysis machines, and operating theaters idle for days at a time. Supplies of antibiotics, painkillers, and surgical equipment are running out entirely in some facilities.
The Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, Gaza’s only dedicated cancer treatment center, shut down in November 2023 due to fuel shortages and was later demolished in March 2025 during Israeli military operations. Al-Shifa Hospital, once Gaza’s largest, has been reduced from 700 beds to a handful of operating rooms running at half staffing levels.
Human Cost
Conditions in displacement shelters, marked by overcrowding, poor sanitation, and limited access to clean water, have fueled outbreaks of diarrhea, hepatitis A, and respiratory diseases.
Meanwhile, famine has tightened its grip. The UN reports that 98 children have died from acute malnutrition since October 2023, 37 of them in the past month alone. Aid deliveries remain blocked or severely restricted, with only 14% of required humanitarian supplies entering the enclave.
At the same time, Israeli fire at crowded aid distribution points has left dozens dead and many more injured, further burdening overstretched hospitals.
A Symbol of Collapse
The disappearance of wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs, aid workers say, is emblematic of the crisis: even the most basic, non-medical devices to restore dignity and mobility are no longer available.
“This is not just a shortage. It is the collapse of an entire health system,” one humanitarian official said. “From treating the war-wounded to helping a child walk again, everything is breaking down.”
