Gaza faces critical shortages of medicine and supplies amid severe aid blockage

09/20/2024 / By Richard Brown

Gaza is currently experiencing a critical shortage of medicine and medical supplies, as reported by the Director of the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip on September 13.

The situation is dire, with 60 percent of medicine stocks depleted, 83 percent of necessary medical supplies unavailable in hospitals and 74 percent of essential life-saving medicines missing.

Reports from CNN in March revealed that Israel has blocked various medical items from entering Gaza, including anesthetics, oxygen cylinders and water filtration systems. These restrictions have been particularly devastating given the high number of injuries requiring amputations due to Israeli bombings and snipers.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams in the Gaza Strip are confronting a dire shortage of essential medicines and medical equipment. Since the end of April, MSF has been unable to bring any medical supplies into Gaza due to the closure of the Rafah border crossing following Israel’s offensive in southern Gaza in early May. Compounding this, Israeli authorities have imposed extensive bureaucratic hurdles that have severely congested the flow of humanitarian aid through the Kerem Shalom crossing.

As a result, trucks carrying aid are forming long queues, causing dangerous delays in delivering crucial assistance. Even when aid does make it into Gaza, lack of security often prevents humanitarian organizations from distributing it effectively. Without a significant replenishment of medical supplies soon, MSF may be forced to halt or drastically reduce its regional medical activities.

“Our medical supplies are critically low due to the restricted flow of aid permitted by Israeli authorities,” said Guillemette Thomas, MSF medical coordinator in Palestine last June. “If we cannot get medical supplies into Gaza very soon, we may have to cease our medical activities. This is an unthinkable reality given the desperate needs of thousands of people.”

Thomas highlighted the severe impact on patient care. “We have patients with severe burns and open fractures and we don’t even have enough painkillers to relieve their suffering. In Nasser and Al-Aqsa hospitals, we’ve had to reduce the frequency of dressing changes for burn victims due to a lack of sterile gauze, risking further infections,” Thomas said.

With 75 percent of Gazans displaced and living in dire conditions, MSF has seen a surge in skin diseases like scabies over the past month. Supplies to treat these conditions are critically low. In Khan Younis, the recently opened Al-Attar healthcare center was forced to suspend general medical consultations for several days due to insufficient supplies.

Israeli restrictions exacerbate food shortages in Gaza

Meanwhile, thousands of aid packages containing food, medical supplies and other necessities are trapped in a backlog of trucks waiting to enter Gaza from Egypt due to Israeli restrictions. (Related: UN investigator accuses Israel of “deliberately starving” Palestinians in Gaza; Netanyahu denies allegation.)

Sam Rose, a senior deputy director at the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, highlighted the severe shortages in health centers, noting that even basic supplies like soap are being imported individually due to restrictions on more comprehensive aid packages.

This underscores the extreme measures to address hygiene amid a worsening situation and the increased risk of infectious diseases.

Additionally, food shortages are exacerbated by Israeli restrictions, with trucks carrying perishable items like vegetables and meat spoiling at checkpoints. Rose estimated that over a million Gazans will face food scarcity in September.

Follow Humanitarian.news for more stories about the humanitarian operations happening in Gaza.

Watch the video below about the UN readying 1.6 million doses of polio “vaccine” for the children in Gaza.

This video is from the The Prisoner channel on Brighteon.com.