Decades of underfunding, blockade have weakened Gaza's health system − the siege has pushed it into abject crisis
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October 16, 2023
Yara M. Asi, Assistant Professor of Global Health Management and Informatics, University of Central Florida -
The Conversation
For the wounded, injured and sick in Gaza, there is seemingly no escape. On Oct. 17, 2023, news broke that at least 500 patients, staff and people seeking shelter from Israeli bombs had been killed in an explosion at a hospital, according to health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave.
It amounts to a devastating loss of life during a campaign of bombing that has not spared the frail or sick. Just days earlier, the World Health Organization said in a stark assessment that an order to evacuate from hospital beds and head south amounts to a “death sentence.”
Beyond the sheer immediate devastation of the current conflict – in which thousands of Israelis and Palestinianshave been killed – there will be significant and undoubtedly long-lasting implications for the Gaza Strip’s health system.
As a Palestinian expert in global health who has worked with medical professionals from Gaza, I know that even before this latest escalation of violence, health services in Gaza were in a poor shape. Insufficiently and poorly resourced for decades, doctors and hospitals also had to contend with the devastating effects of a 16-year blockade imposed by Israel, in part with coordination with Egypt.
A system completely overwhelmed
The immediate concern in Gaza is for those seeking assistance due to the bombing campaign that Israel ordered after an attack on its people by Hamas fighters. An expected ground offensive will only further risk more civilian casualties.
Hospitals in Gaza are completely overwhelmed. They are seeing around 1,000 new patients per day, in a health system with only 2,500 hospital beds for a population of over 2 million people. It has forced hospitals to tend to patients in corridors and nearby streets. People maimed in the bombing are being treated for horrific injuries without basics such as gauze dressings, antiseptic, IV bags and painkillers. Those experiencing traumatic injuries are unable to receive sufficient care, increasing rates of infection and amputation.
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