Gaza Herald_ Dr. Ahmed Muhanna, who spent one year and 10 months in Israeli detention, says Gaza’s already-struggling health system, weakened by 18 years of blockade, has been pushed into near-total collapse by Israel’s war.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Deir el-Balah, Muhanna said that about 70% of the remaining functioning hospitals are running dangerously low on medicines and essential equipment. He added that environmental contamination caused by Israeli attacks is now making even more Palestinians sick.
“We have hundreds of patients coming to the emergency departments because the water and food are polluted. It’s very dangerous,” he said.
Muhanna said Israeli forces imprisoned him simply because “I kept my patients in the hospital.”
He described the prison as a place with no healthcare at all. Most detainees, he said, became ill, but Israeli guards repeatedly refused requests for clean clothes or showers.
“For seven months, we didn’t change our clothes. We developed scabies and abscesses. We lost many prisoners because there were no medications,” Muhanna added.
As Gaza continues to struggle under blockade, bombardment, and the collapse of basic services, Dr. Muhanna’s testimony reflects the wider reality faced by thousands of Palestinians, both inside the prisons and outside in a devastated healthcare system. His account stands as yet another reminder that without immediate international intervention, improved medical access, and protection for detainees, the suffering will only deepen. For many in Gaza, survival now depends not on the resilience of its people but on whether the world chooses to act.
