Shafaq News – Gaza
The Gaza Ministry of Health urged international intervention to rescue what remains of the territory’s healthcare system, describing the situation after two years of war as a “total and deliberate collapse” amounting to a health genocide.
According to the statement released on Tuesday, the Ministry said that 730 days of continuous bombardment and siege had “obliterated the backbone of human existence” in Gaza by systematically destroying hospitals, medical centers, and essential health infrastructure. Most hospitals, it warned, have become “empty concrete shells” stripped of their diagnostic and treatment capacities.
Heavy Human and Institutional Losses
The Ministry reported 67,173 people killed and 169,780 injured since the start of the war, including 20,179 children, 10,427 women, and 4,813 elderly people. Among the victims are 1,701 medical workers killed and 362 others detained under what the statement described as “forcible disappearance and deprivation of their rights.”
Out of 38 hospitals in the Gaza Strip, 25 are now completely out of service, while the remaining 13 operate only partially under extreme conditions. The destruction extends to 103 of 157 primary healthcare centers, with only 54 functioning on a limited basis.
Systemic Breakdown of Medical Supplies
The Ministry highlighted an unprecedented shortage of medical materials: 55% of essential medicines, 66% of medical disposables, and 68% of laboratory supplies are completely depleted. The average hospital bed occupancy reached 225% by the end of September, compared with 82% a year earlier—an indicator it described as “catastrophic.”
The attacks have also destroyed 25 of 35 oxygen generation plants and 61 of 110 power generators, crippling hospitals’ ability to maintain life-support systems.
Starvation, Disease, and Humanitarian Blockade
The statement said famine levels have reached “dangerous limits” as defined by UN classifications, recording 460 deaths due to starvation and malnutrition, including 154 children. Over 51,000 children under five suffer from acute malnutrition.
Overcrowded displacement zones—referred to by Israel as “humanitarian areas”—lack basic living conditions, leading to the spread of diseases and the collapse of water and food systems. Routine and emergency vaccination programs have also been disrupted, reducing immunization coverage to 80% and halting the fourth phase of polio prevention, increasing the risk of outbreaks.
Meanwhile, 4,900 people have undergone amputations and require long-term rehabilitation, and 18,000 patients, including 5,580 children, have been denied exit permits for treatment abroad due to the closure of border crossings.
Appeal for International Action
Despite immense risk, the Ministry said Gaza’s remaining medical staff “continue to perform their humanitarian and national duty,” calling for urgent international intervention to ensure safe access to medical aid and essential supplies, and protect healthcare workers and facilities from ongoing attacks.
It is called for holding Israel accountable for “the systematic destruction of the health sector.”
“Failure to act now,” the statement concluded, “means complicity in the annihilation of healthcare and the right to life in Gaza.”