With most hospitals closed, Gaza’s doctors struggle to provide care

KHAN YOUNIS, GAZA — THE ISRAELI ASSAULT on the Gaza Strip has left the health sector in the besieged coastal enclave in a state of unprecedented, near-total collapse, according to an investigation by +972 Magazine and The Intercept. The dire conditions were prompted by Israel’s intensive bombardment, sometimes targeting hospitals and surrounding areas, along with power cuts, shortages of fuel and medical supplies, and an exponential increase in injuries.

More than half of the 30 hospitals in Gaza have closed completely, according to the Health Ministry. For others, the window of operation remains precariously short: The crisis has pushed many of the remaining health care centers to the brink of closure, rendering them incapable of providing vital medical services. Health care workers and hospital employees fear that, even as casualties rise daily, the health care system will soon be unable to accommodate new patients.

“For several days we have been talking about the lack of fuel and electricity inside the hospital,” Dr. Sobhi Skaik, the director of the Turkish Friendship Hospital in the Mughraqa area in the central Gaza Strip, said in an interview last week. “And now what we feared and repeatedly warned about has happened: We ran out of fuel and the electricity is cut off. The hospital is out of service.”