Gaza’s Health System On Brink Of Collapse

On January 3, 2025, at a United Nations Security Council meeting, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, World Health Organization (WHO) representative for the West Bank and Gaza, warned that the Gaza health system was on the verge of collapse. Dr Rik Peeperkorn warned: “Time and time again, hospitals have become battlegrounds, preventing them from delivering services and denying those in need of life-saving care. The health sector is being systematically dismantled and pushed to the brink, and its resilience lies in the medical The situation is being tested amid severe shortages of supplies, equipment and professionals. Only 16 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are still partially operational, with a total of only 1,822 beds, far less than what is needed to address the severe health crisis.

During the meeting, United Nations High Commissioner for Human RightsVolker Türk calls hospital destruction a ‘human rights disaster’ [that] Events in Gaza continue to unfold before the world’s eyes. The United Nations High Commissioner noted that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded At least 27 hospitals and 12 other medical facilities in Gaza suffered at least 136 attacks. The damage caused by recent attacks on Kamal Adwan Hospital, the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza, “reflects a pattern of attacks documented in his office’s recent report.” All of these attacks “have left doctors, nurses, Medical personnel and other civilians suffered heavy casualties, and many target buildings were damaged or destroyed.” To date, more than 1,050 health care workers have lost their lives in Gaza.

The United Nations High Commissioner mentioned OHCHR reportpublished on December 31, 2024, the report finds that an increasingly limited health care system prevents many people experiencing trauma from receiving timely and potentially life-saving treatment. The report covers the period from October 7, 2023 to June 30, 2024, and does not comment on the recent attack on Kamal Adwan Hospital in late December 2024 or the closure of Indonesian hospitals (due to shortages of water, electricity and health). “Many of the injured reportedly died while awaiting hospitalization or treatment. Even those who managed to receive critical care, including surgery, were not provided with proper bedding and facilities and were often discharged prematurely due to lack of space,” the report states. .also, Report The attack on Gaza hospitals also had a severe impact on patients who initially did not have fatal symptoms, potentially leading to their deaths, the commentary said. The report found that “women, especially pregnant women, are suffering severely. Many women give birth with no or minimal prenatal and postnatal care, increasing the risk of preventable maternal and child deaths. (.. .) OHCHR has received reports of newborns dying because their mothers were unable to attend postpartum check-ups or attend delivery at a health facility, as well as patients with chronic medical conditions that required repeated treatment, such as kidney failure, hypertension, diabetes and Heart disease, and cancer patients are also unable to access critical treatments.

Addressing the UN Security Council meeting, the UN High Commissioner stressed that “the protection of hospitals during war is vital and must always be respected by all parties” and called for independent, thorough and transparent investigations into all attacks on hospitals, medical infrastructure and medical personnel.

Brett Jonathan Miller, Israel’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, commented in response to the report that the recent operations carried out by the Israel Defense Forces “arrested more than 240 terrorists, including 15 people involved in the October 7 massacre.” . He further added, “Among those arrested was a hospital director himself; [was] He is suspected of being a Hamas agent because hundreds of Hamas and Islamist defectors are holed up in the Kamal Adwan hospital he runs. He is currently under investigation by Israeli security forces.

The attack on Gaza hospitals has pushed the health system to the brink of total collapse. This has had a catastrophic impact on Palestinian access to health and medical services. All attacks on healthcare must be investigated as a matter of urgency. However, such investigations will not accomplish much if Palestinians are denied any medical care. Restoring health care services must be a priority.