The health crisis

After causing the massive destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system during the war, Israel’s current policy continues to violate the rights of Gaza’s residents to life and to health by imposing restrictions on the entry of medicines and medical equipment needed in the Strip. This forces residents to live in conditions that increase morbidity, and limits the options available to seriously ill and wounded patients to travel for treatment outside of Gaza.

Gaza’s healthcare system is struggling to recover from the systematic destruction inflicted on it, while coping with a large patient volume and shortages of physicians, medicines, medical equipment, and fuel. At the same time, there has been a rise in morbidity resulting from overcrowding, shortages, and harsh living conditions imposed on Gaza’s residents in displacement sites. Illnesses include the spread of infectious respiratory diseases; skin diseases; gastrointestinal illnesses, including hepatitis A; as well as conditions transmitted by parasites and rodents.

State of the healthcare system

After two and a half years of war, approximately 42,000 people in the Gaza Strip, including 10,500 children, remain seriously injured and in need of rehabilitation and ongoing care. After the ceasefire went into effect, the number and rate of new patients arriving at hospitals declined, and the volume of medicines and medical equipment entering the Strip increased. The number of functioning medical facilities also climbed. However, by the end of April 2026, only 296 treatment facilities out of 683 were operating, almost all of them on a partial basis only. Currently, only 18 hospitals operate in the Strip.

The healthcare system continues to grapple with severe shortages of medicines, equipment and medical devices, including operating tables and spare parts for ultrasound machines, ventilators and incubators, as Israel refuses to allow these items into Gaza. According to reports from April 2026, based on information published by the Gaza Ministry of Health, more than half of all essential medicines in Gaza were unavailable, and stocks of laboratory testing materials and medical disposables were also running out.

Shortage of medical staff and restrictions on the entry of specialists

The daunting task of meeting Gaza’s overwhelming medical needs falls to a decimated healthcare system that has lost more than 1,700 staff members in Israeli attacks, including many senior physicians and hospital directors. Even before the war, Gaza’s healthcare system relied on assistance from specialists from Israel, the West Bank, and around the world. Ever since the war broke out, Israel has refused to let physicians from Israel or the West Bank into Gaza, and arbitrarily rejected many applications made by volunteer physicians from various countries, without offering any explanation, despite the dire situation and the urgent need for their help.

On February 5, 2026, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), PHRI and Gisha petitioned the High Court of Justice on behalf of seven volunteer physicians from the UK and the United States who were denied entry into the Strip at the last minute, arbitrarily, with no reasons provided or an opportunity to appeal their case. The petition seeks a reform of the system for approving the entry of physicians into the Gaza Strip. The organizations also demand the issuance and publication of a directive stating that giving testimony, expressing criticism, or providing information about the condition of the healthcare system or the humanitarian situation in Gaza will not constitute grounds for rejecting the applications of medical staff to enter Gaza.

The entry of volunteer medical staff is equivalent to the entry of any humanitarian aid into an active combat zone or an area under belligerent occupation, and as such is governed by the binding framework of international humanitarian law; it is not dependent on the discretion of the State. The State has an obligation to ensure access to medical treatment for Gaza’s residents.

Further reading:

Association for Civil Rights in Israel: Refusing to Allow Volunteer Physicians into Gaza, February 5, 2026

Restrictions on medical evacuations from Gaza

With Israel’s decimation of Gaza’s healthcare system, thousands of patients are unable to receive treatment for serious medical conditions, including care for various types of cancer or rehabilitation for complex injuries. More than 18,500 sick and wounded patients are waiting to be evacuated for medical treatment abroad. However, even those who have made it onto this list face slim chances of leaving the Strip and receiving treatment.

According to UN data, only 1,080 patients were evacuated from the Strip between October 2025 and April 23, 2026, most of whom were war wounded. In April 2026, only 32 cancer patients were evacuated, while thousands more continue to wait for life saving treatment. Most medical evacuees were transferred for treatment in Egypt. The main obstacle is the restrictions Israel imposes on exiting Gaza. Another (Hebrew) is Israel’s refusal to allow patients to travel for treatment in hospitals in the West Bank or East Jerusalem, as was the practice before the war broke out in October 2023.

Since October 2023, Israel has blocked all access to medical care between Gaza and the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel. With access to medical treatment in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, patients from Gaza would be able to have continuous care and any required follow-up treatment. It is also the only option for them to access treatment quickly and return to Gaza once it is completed. Within just an hour’s drive, they could reach a network of hospitals that are prepared to receive them and have all of the necessary equipment, which has not been available in Gaza’s hospitals for more than two years.

In November 2025, PHRI, Gisha, HaMoked, ACRI, and Adalah filed a petition demanding the reopening of the medical corridor between Gaza and the West Bank and East Jerusalem. A group of 32 senior Israeli physicians asked to join the petition in support of the request to renew the corridor. At a hearing held on March 30, 2026, the justices ruled that the petition could not be heard in light of the war with Iran and postponed the hearing to a date still to be determined. Meanwhile, thousands of patients in Gaza are fighting for their lives without adequate medical care.

Further reading:

Gisha: Ill will: Israel’s Policy on Medical Evacuation from the Gaza Strip, February 12, 2026

Physicians for Human Rights–Israel: There are three possible solutions for patients in Gaza, and Israel is thwarting all of them, op ed by Keren Shavit, Haaretz, April 15, 2026 (Hebrew)

Gaza’s mental health crisis

Gaza is in the throes of a severe mental health crisis. UNFPA data published in March 2026 indicate that 61% of adolescents and youths showed signs of post traumatic stress disorder, 38% suffered from depression, and 41% from anxiety. Among adults, 20% of those surveyed reported having suicidal thoughts on a daily basis. UNFPA estimates that about one million children in Gaza are in urgent need of psychosocial treatment. According to World Health Organization estimates, in the beginning of 2025 there were 485,000 people in the Gaza Strip who had mental disorders: persistent and significant impairment in emotional, cognitive or behavioral functioning.

Ongoing displacement, the loss of home and relatives, and the absence of even minimal personal space and basic living conditions lead to cumulative trauma that erodes the ability to cope. This is compounded by the hunger crisis, which poses an existential threat and serves as a source of psychological distress. More than 1.6 million people (77% of the population) continue to suffer from varying levels of food insecurity. Hunger, deprivation, and daily uncertainty intensify anxiety, depression, and mental exhaustion and exacerbate the harm to the civilian population as the crisis persists.

A report by Gisha, produced together with the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme and other professionals, identifies displacement as a central and ongoing traumatic experience of the war. Displacement is accompanied by sudden, terrifying changes, sometimes involving walking long distances under fire, arriving in unfamiliar places without basic shelter, and coping with the loss of any sense of control or stability. Later, the conditions IDPs encounter after fleeing their homes—crowded, flimsy tents that do not protect against harsh weather, disconnection from electricity and water infrastructure, total lack of privacy and widespread illness—preclude psychological recovery or emotional stability. These conditions, and the absence of any horizon for improvement, are major factors in the sense of despair and the rising rates of interpersonal violence in the community and within families.

According to the report, the accumulation of risk factors creates patterns of complex, chronic trauma that go beyond standard diagnostic categories. The extremely limited mental health services available in the Strip, together with ongoing displacement, create physical, logistical, and social barriers to accessing care. All of this is taking place when the basic conditions for psychosocial treatment, i.e a safe, private space, social stability, and a clear separation between therapist and patient, simply do not exist.

Gaza’s mental health crisis is not just the result of a shortage of services, but also of the deep systemic breakdown and the disintegration of the social fabric. Standard therapeutic interventions, even when available, cannot adequately address a reality of continuous trauma.

Therefore, as an immediate step, it is necessary to create conditions, even minimal ones, that will enable people to begin the process of recovery and healing. This applies to all spheres of life, and requires, among other things, an immediate end to attacks on civilians; the lifting of restrictions on the movement of people and goods; full access to humanitarian supplies; and the promotion of psychosocial support programs adapted to the circumstances in Gaza, with an emphasis on community focused care.

Further reading:

Gisha: Gisha: A Safe Space for the Mind: Women and Mental Health Under Attack in Gaza, March 29, 2026