Shafaq News

After the guns fell silent, Gaza’s hospitals remain crowded with the war’s living casualties—men, women, and children who survived the explosions but now face a new, quieter war: the struggle to live with permanent disability in a territory where the health system has collapsed.

Eyad Rajab al-Tawashi, 37, was shot in the ankle last August while walking toward the Zikim crossing in search of food for his family. “No facility has been able to treat my case or even provide a joint replacement,” he told Shafaq News from his bed in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

His wound, untreated for months, has now become disabling. “I can’t even reach the bathroom, yet I’m not eligible for a wheelchair,” he said, explaining that the World Health Organization (WHO) distributes them only to amputees or fully paralyzed patients. Once the family’s provider, he now relies on food parcels from aid agencies.

Al-Tawashi’s story captures a broader humanitarian emergency: thousands who survived the 2023–2024 war only to be trapped in long-term medical neglect.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, at least 170,200 people have been injured since October 7, 2023. The World Health Organization estimates that around 42,000 of those injuries are life-altering—including 5,000 amputations, 2,000 spinal injuries, and 1,300 brain injuries.

Facilities that once offered physiotherapy and prosthetics have been bombed or rendered inoperable by power cuts and supply shortages. Doctors now work in tents or corridors. “We used to measure recovery in months,” said a surgeon at Al-Shifa Hospital, requesting anonymity. “Now we measure how long a patient can survive without painkillers.”

Humanitarian organizations report a rise in “secondary disabilities”—injuries that could have healed if treated promptly but became permanent due to infection or delayed surgery.

A Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor assessment in May 2025 found that about 30 Palestinians become permanently or temporarily disabled every day, bringing the total to more than 21,000 people since the start of the war, including 4,800 amputees and 1,200 cases of paralysis.

The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) estimates that 21,000 children have been newly disabled, and that Gaza now hosts around 90,000 people with disabilities overall, roughly 4 percent of the enclave’s population.

Even after the ceasefire, Israel’s continuing restrictions on medical evacuations have left thousands unable to access treatment abroad. According to UN OCHA data (September 2025), fewer than 12 percent of medical-transfer requests from Gaza were approved during the first half of the year—one of the lowest rates since 2014.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health accuses Israel of “weaponizing medical access,” while Israeli authorities cite “security vetting” procedures. The closure, compounded by internal political division between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, has frozen most foreign rehabilitation programs.

“The blockade doesn’t only stop goods—it stops recovery,” said a Gaza health worker.

Meanwhile, UNRWA figures show that rehabilitation projects represent less than 6 percent of total humanitarian funding to Gaza since the war—underscoring a global aid gap that prioritizes temporary shelter over long-term recovery.

For Gaza’s children, disability carries a lifetime of consequences. “We are watching a generation learn to crawl again on makeshift limbs made from plastic pipes,” said a nurse working in central Gaza.

The Save the Children organization warned in its June 2025 report that child amputations in Gaza have reached record levels, with more than 2,500 children losing one or more limbs. Psychologists describe an emerging “orphaned generation”—not without parents, but without opportunity. Schools lack accessible infrastructure, and trauma counseling is almost nonexistent.

“The war created visible ruins,” said Gaza-based psychologist Ahmad Abu Warda. “But the invisible ones—mental trauma and physical disability—will shape Gaza’s future far longer.”

Before the war, Gaza’s unemployment, according to the World Bank, stood at 45 percent. Now, with thousands of workers disabled and hundreds of factories destroyed, the Bank’s mid-2025 assessment warns of a “collapse in labor participation” and a GDP contraction of more than 25 percent compared with prewar levels.

Read more: Two years of Israeli war leave Gaza in ruins

“Disability in Gaza is not only medical—it’s economic,” said economist Osama Hamdan. “A father who loses a leg also loses his job, his home, and his role in society. Multiply that by tens of thousands, and you have a social fabric on the brink of disintegration.”

Families now sell belongings to purchase mobility aids on the black market, where a single wheelchair costs $700–$1,000, according to Human Rights Watch estimates. Others use grocery carts or wooden boards as improvised substitutes. In a UN field survey (August 2025), 78 percent of disabled respondents said they had no income and no access to assistive devices.

While aid agencies have documented the crisis, few have developed a coherent rehabilitation plan. The WHO has described the situation as a “mass-disability event” that will require decades of sustained intervention.

Read more: WHO alarms disease spread in Gaza spiraling beyond containment

European and Arab donors have pledged mobile clinics and field hospitals, but these address acute injuries, not the chronic needs of amputees or the psychologically scarred. “Rehabilitation is invisible aid—it doesn’t make headlines,” one NGO official said.

For many Gazans, the ceasefire changed only the soundscape, not the suffering. Eyad al-Tawashi’s days now pass between hospital corridors and silent waiting. He holds a photo of his children in his hand—the same hand that once pushed their swing. “They call it a ceasefire,” he said quietly. “But for us, the war never ended.”

Written and edited by Shafaq News staff.