Amid Israel's Conflict, Gaza's Cancer Patients Face Looming Death Due to Medicine Shortage and Lack of Care
Amid Israel's Conflict, Gaza's Cancer Patients Face Looming Death Due to Medicine Shortage and Lack of Care
Al-shifa hospital - Gaza
In the densely populated United Nations-run school in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Saida Barbakh, a 62-year-old bone cancer patient, sits in her wheelchair, surrounded by crowded conditions. Her medication ran out days ago, following a complicated surgery in occupied East Jerusalem's Al Makassed Hospital, just before the conflict erupted.
The ongoing Israeli bombardment has forced 725,000 displaced Palestinians, including Barbakh, into these UN shelters, lacking essentials like electricity, clean water, and adequate sanitation. For cancer patients like Barbakh, already struggling, these conditions exacerbate their suffering.
The Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, Gaza's only cancer treatment center, shut down on November 1 due to fuel scarcity from the ongoing blockade and severe damage from Israeli attacks. Barbakh, among 70 evacuated patients, had to seek refuge in a shelter school after her home was damaged in the bombings.
The lives of these 70 cancer patients hang in the balance, warns Palestinian Authority health minister Mai al-Kaila, highlighting the dire circumstances faced by Gaza's 2,000 cancer patients due to the relentless Israeli aggression.
The director of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, Subhi Sukeyk, revealed that essential medicines have depleted, leaving specialized cancer treatments like chemotherapy unavailable. The Dar Essalam Hospital offers basic clinical care but lacks the necessary medications or advanced cancer treatments.
Tragically, some patients, aware of the absence of life-saving treatments, opt to spend their final days with family in the shelters, resigning to their fate. Sukeyk painfully notes the daily loss of two or three cancer patients due to the unavailability of adequate medical care.
The blockade imposed on Gaza for 16 years has severely strained healthcare facilities. Medical referrals for treatment outside the territory, crucial for cancer patients, now face severe obstacles. Israeli approval for medical exit applications has drastically declined amid the conflict, halting essential treatments and check-ups for thousands of patients.
Reem Asraf, battling thyroid cancer, laments the absence of her necessary medication and the closure of the Beit Hanoon crossing, blocking access to treatment in East Jerusalem's Al Makassed Hospital. Displaced and lacking essential painkillers, her health rapidly deteriorates.
Amidst the scenes of destruction, Gaza's cancer patients endure unimaginable suffering, facing imminent death due to the unavailability of critical treatments and care.
