‘Medicine is being strangled’: An MSF doctor on collapse of Gaza's healthcare system
13th August - Over the last 22 months, Israel’s all out war on Gaza, Palestine, has left the Strip’s healthcare system in tatters. Health facilities and medics have been continuously targeted, leaving 50 per cent of all hospitals out of service, and those that remain open are only partially functional. Meanwhile, the near total siege placed on Gaza since March has left facilities without critical life-saving supplies, and healthcare staff without sufficient food. At the same time, in July, facilities across Gaza saw the highest influx of hospital admissions since October 2023. Dr Mohammed Abu Mughaisib, Médecins Sans Frontières’ deputy medical coordinator in Gaza, speaks to the disastrous situation of healthcare on the ground and calls, once again, for a ceasefire.
Gaza’s healthcare system is a broken shell, barely functioning, crushed by the deliberate destruction of every aspect of life here, including the very institutions meant to save lives. What we’re seeing today in our medical facilities is a wave of patients unlike anything that came before. The flood of patients is unprecedented. It’s not just the victims of airstrikes and bombings. It’s people with chronic illnesses who can no longer access treatment.
Now we have a new horror: the so-called “food distribution points” supported by Israel through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Places that are supposed to support starving Palestinians have become killing fields. The attacks at these sites are increasing the daily influx of wounded people, as Israeli forces open fire on civilians gathering for food.
In July 2025, MSF teams in Gaza treated hundreds of trauma patients, numbers reaching the highest levels we have ever recorded in the Strip. Including a high of 1,200 people who were hospitalised in just one week at the end of July – a significant increase from June. The WHO reported 13,500 injuries in Gaza in July, which is higher than anything we have seen since the first three months of the all out war in 2023.
Some MSF clinics currently shut their doors by 9:30am due to overcapacity, after treating more than 200 people in just a few short hours. These patients we see are only a fraction of the number of people who need medical care. Our teams must limit the number of patients they see each day because without additional medical supplies, beds, or staff, we simply can't provide adequate care for more people. Many people die before they can reach us. Others lie bleeding for hours in overcrowded emergency rooms and in packed corridors. Wounds that would be treatable anywhere else become death sentences here.
We see amputations, gaping infected wounds, shattered bones, and torn arteries. Wounds that need urgent surgery and intensive care. But these life-saving departments are collapsing. In the remaining hospitals across Gaza, there are not enough painkillers, anesthetics, antibiotics, external fixators for fractures, or surgical instruments.
Every hospital is overrun. MSF facilities run at over 100% capacity, while some Ministry of Health hospitals have reached over 200%, including Al –Shifa hospital. Surgical waiting lists are so long that patients often die before we have the chance to operate.
Hunger is another threat, as doctors work 24-hour shifts on one meal a day. Patients with burns, fractures, or massive wounds receive small, nutrient deficient meals. Without protein or enough calories, bones don’t mend, burns don’t heal, and infections spread.
Before 7 October 2023, Gaza’s health system was already fragile. Today, it is barely surviving, overwhelmed by massive patient numbers, collapsing supply chains, deepening hunger, and the targeting of civilians. Preventable deaths and permanent disabilities are our daily reality. At the same time, according to the WHO, at least 14,500 people are in desperate need of medical evacuation for specialised medical care that they cannot receive in Gaza, as there are no services available. Instead of facilitating these evacuations, the Israeli authorities arbitrarily block or delay them.
For the 675th time in this war, I say it again: Without an immediate ceasefire, without sustained medical and humanitarian access, there will be nothing left to save. Not the hospitals. Not the patients. Not the future.
