Dialysis Patients Struggle to Get Treatment in Blockaded Gaza. Officials Say Hundreds Have Died
Twice a week, Mohamed Attiya's wheelchair rattles over Gaza's scarred roads so he can visit the machine that is keeping him alive.
The 54-year-old makes the journey from a temporary shelter west of Gaza City to Shifa Hospital in the city's north. There, he receives dialysis for the kidney failure he was diagnosed with nearly 15 years ago. But the treatment, limited by the war's destruction and lack of supplies, is not enough to remove all the waste products from his blood.
'It just brings you back from death,' the father of six said.
Many others like him have not made it. They are some of Gaza's quieter deaths from the war, with no explosion, no debris. But the toll is striking: Over 400 patients, representing around 40% of all dialysis cases in the territory, have died during the 18-month conflict because of lack of proper treatment, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
That includes 11 patients who have died since the beginning of March, when Israel sealed the territory's 2 million Palestinians off from all imports, including food, medical supplies and fuel. Israeli officials say the aim is to pressure Hamas to release more hostages after Israel ended their ceasefire.
COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of coordinating aid, declined to comment on the current blockade. It has said in the past that all medical aid is approved for entry when the crossings are open, and that around 45,400 tons of medical equipment have entered Gaza since the start of the war.
Hardships mount for Gaza patients
Attiya said he needs at least three dialysis sessions every week, at least four hours each time. Now, his two sessions last two or three hours at most.
Israel's blockade, and its numerous evacuation orders across much of the territory, have challenged his ability to reach regular care.
He has been displaced at least six times since fleeing his home near the northern town of Beit Hanoun in the first weeks of the war. He first stayed in Rafah in the south, then the central city of Deir al-Balah. When the latest ceasefire took effect in January, he moved again to another school in western Gaza City.
Until recently, Attiya walked to the hospital for dialysis. But he says the limited treatment, and soaring prices for the mineral water he should be drinking, have left him in a wheelchair.
His family wheels him through a Gaza that many find difficult to recognize. Much of the territory has been destroyed.
'There is no transportation. Streets are damaged,' Attiya said. 'Life is difficult and expensive.'
He said he now has hallucinations because of the high levels of toxins in his blood.
'The occupation does not care about the suffering or the sick,' he said, referring to Israel and its soldiers.
A health system gutted by war
Six of the seven dialysis centers in Gaza have been destroyed during the war, the World Health Organization said earlier this year, citing the territory's Health Ministry. The territory had 182 dialysis machines before the war and now has 102. Twenty-seven of them are in northern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people rushed home during the two-month ceasefire.
'These equipment shortages are exacerbated by zero stock levels of kidney medications,' the WHO said.
Israel has raided hospitals on several occasions during the war, accusing Hamas of using them for military purposes. Hospital staff deny the allegations and say the raids have gutted the territory's health care system as it struggles to cope with mass casualties from the war.
The Health Ministry says over 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel's offensive, without saying how many were civilians or combatants. Hamas-led fighters killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war.
Officials say hundreds of patients have died
At Shifa Hospital, the head of the nephrology and dialysis department, Dr. Ghazi al-Yazigi, said at least 417 patients with kidney failure have died in Gaza during the war because of lack of proper treatment.
That's from among the 1,100 patients when the war began.
Like Attiya, hundreds of dialysis patients across Gaza are now forced to settle for fewer and shorter sessions each week.
'This leads to complications such as increased levels of toxins and fluid accumulation ... which could lead to death,' al-Yazigi said.
Mohamed Kamel of Gaza City is a new dialysis patient at the hospital after being diagnosed with kidney failure during the war and beginning treatment this year.
These days, 'I feel no improvement after each session,' he said during one of his weekly visits.
The father of six children said he no longer has access to filtered water to drink, and even basic running water is scarce. Israel last month cut off the electricity supply to Gaza, affecting a desalination plant producing drinking water for part of the arid territory.
Kamel said he has missed many dialysis sessions. Last year, while sheltering in central Gaza, he missed one because of an Israeli bombing in the area. His condition deteriorated, and the next day he was taken by ambulance to Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital.
'The displacement has had consequences,' Kamel said. 'I am tired.'
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Arab News
3 hours ago
- Arab News
What daily life is really like for women and girls surviving under Israeli siege in Gaza
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'The devastation experienced by women, girls and entire communities is not incidental — it is the consequence of intentional policies and actions by Israel,' they said. 'The killings of thousands of women and girls may constitute the deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction, in whole or in part, of the Palestinian people.' Israeli forces launched military operations in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, during which 1,200 people — mostly civilians — were killed and about 250 others, many non-Israelis, were taken hostage. Since then, at least 56,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to local health officials. Israel maintains that it does not deliberately target civilians and accuses Hamas of using Gaza's population as human shields. The crisis has been compounded by repeated Israeli blockades on humanitarian aid and commercial goods, pushing the territory into famine and prompting accusations that food is being weaponized. Despite ongoing international attempts to broker a ceasefire, the conflict has devastated the enclave, triggering one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters. 'More than two-thirds of Gaza's population, about 1.7 million people, are now estimated to be crammed into an area of 69 sq. km — less than a fifth of the Strip,' Hadeel Qazzaz, Oxfam MENA's regional gender coordinator, told Arab News. In overcrowded tents and displacement camps, privacy is almost nonexistent. Care responsibilities have increased for women, and water shortages are taking a disproportionate toll. 'From queuing for hours in the heat for water to facing daily health risks due to lack of proper sanitation, the lack of clean and safe latrines is leading to serious health issues, including infections among women,' said Qazzaz. At displacement sites reached by Oxfam in May 2024, water points were reportedly located up to a kilometer away. Women and girls were spending up to three hours a day collecting water — compared to 1.7 hours for men and boys. But water is only part of the problem. Food insecurity presents another growing threat. Nine out of 10 displacement sites show visible signs of malnutrition among residents, with female-headed households among the most vulnerable. 'Women are skipping meals so their children can eat,' said Qazzaz. 'Many are putting their own health at risk to keep their families going. When food parcels arrive, women often eat last — or not at all.' An estimated 71,000 children and 17,000 women are expected to require urgent treatment for acute malnutrition in the coming weeks, highlighting the scale of the emergency and the desperate need for sustained aid access. 'Even when food is available, women often have to cook on open fires due to fuel shortages — exposing them to health risks and doubling the time needed to prepare a meal,' said Qazzaz. Pregnant and breastfeeding women are especially at risk, with many becoming dangerously undernourished. Since October 2023, Gaza has seen a 300 percent increase in miscarriages. Premature births and maternal deaths have surged, with many women forced to give birth without proper medical support. 'Maternal care is nearly nonexistent,' said Qazzaz. 'Women are giving birth in tents, without skilled help, clean supplies or even pain relief.' These accounts are echoed by medical workers on the ground. 'The situation in Gaza is precarious for everyone, but especially for pregnant women,' Denise Potvin, a Canadian nursing activity manager with Medecins Sans Frontieres at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, told Arab News. 'Over the past weeks, we've seen malnutrition steadily increase. It's very visible — there's a huge vulnerability for pregnant and lactating women. The small amount of food entering Gaza through aid crossings is nowhere near enough to meet the needs of this population.' Maternity departments are seeing more women arriving late — after giving birth at home — or showing up in emergency rooms because they couldn't reach a hospital in time. 'Colleagues, including midwives and health professionals, are being woken up in the middle of the night to assist in home deliveries because women simply cannot reach hospitals,' said Potvin. 'Constant displacement, insecurity and lack of transport make it incredibly difficult for pregnant women to access care.' 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From bombardment to birth complications, period poverty to famine, every aspect of life has been made much harder. With 90 percent of households facing extreme water shortages, women and girls struggle to manage menstruation without access to clean water, soap, sanitary pads or private spaces. • 28k Women and girls killed since October 2023. • 1m Women and girls displaced by the conflict. • 13k Women who are now single heads of households. • 17k Pregnant and breastfeeding women deemed acutely malnourished. Source: UN Around 700,000 women and girls of menstruating age — many experiencing their first periods — are facing these challenges in shelters and displacement camps. A rapid gender analysis by Oxfam found that 690,000 menstruating women and girls lack access to clean facilities and sufficient water for basic hygiene. Each person is allocated just 6.6 liters of water a day — less than half the global emergency minimum. 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To help women regain a sense of dignity and autonomy, the agency has also provided cash and voucher assistance to more than 150,000 women and girls, enabling them to buy essential hygiene items like soap, towels, pads, and underwear amid severe shortages. These relentless hardships — from caregiving and hunger to hygiene struggles in unsafe conditions — are taking a psychological toll. Mental health issues are on the rise, with mounting reports of stress, anxiety and depression among women and girls. With Gaza's education system in collapse, many girls have become full-time caregivers for their younger siblings. 'Girls are being more deeply affected,' said Qazzaz. 'The war has pushed many out of school and into caregiving roles. Some are being forced into early marriages as families try to reduce economic burdens.' As household tensions rise, so too does gender-based violence. Experts say only a ceasefire would offer immediate relief to the women and girls of Gaza. 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Asharq Al-Awsat
14 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Inside the Tunnel Where Muhammad Sinwar Was Killed
By Patrick Kingsley* Two feet wide and less than six feet tall, the tunnel led deep beneath a major hospital in southern Gaza. The underground air bore the stench of what smelled like human remains. After walking some 40 yards along the tunnel, we found the likely cause. In a tiny room that the tunnel led to, the floor was stained with blood. It was here, according to the Israeli military, that Muhammad Sinwar - one of Hamas's top commanders and the younger brother of slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar - was killed last month after a nearby barrage of Israeli strikes. What we saw in that dark and narrow tunnel is one of the war's biggest Rorschach tests (psychological assessment tool that uses inkblots to evaluate a person's personality), the embodiment of a broader narrative battle between Israelis and Palestinians over how the conflict should be portrayed. 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In a roughly 20-minute ride from the Israeli border, we saw no Palestinians — the result of Israel's decision to order the residents of southern Gaza to abandon their homes and head west to the sea. Many buildings were simply piles of rubble, destroyed either by Israeli strikes and demolitions or Hamas' booby-traps. Here and there, some buildings survived, more or less intact; on one balcony, someone had left a tidy line of potted cactuses. We drove in open-top jeeps, a sign that across this swath of southeastern Gaza, the Israeli military no longer fears being ambushed by Hamas fighters. Until at least the Salah al-Din highway, the territory's main north-south artery, the Israeli military seemed to be in complete command after the expansion of its ground campaign in March. The European Gaza Hospital and the tunnel beneath it are among the places that now appear to be exclusively under Israeli control. 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'It would be an unlawful use of a conventional bomb — a generally lawful weapon — if the intent is to kill with the asphyxiating gases released by that bomb,' said Sarah Harrison, a former lawyer at the US Defense Department and an analyst at the International Crisis Group. Defrin denied any such intent. 'This is something that I have to emphasize here, as a Jew first and then as a human being: We don't use gas as weapons,' he said. In other tunnels discovered by the Israeli military, soldiers have used Palestinians as human shields, sending them on ahead to scour for traps. The general denied the practice. The tunnel was excavated by Israelis, he said. The New York Times
Al Arabiya
16 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Israeli gunfire kills 17 people near Gaza aid site: Health officials
Israeli gunfire killed at least 17 Palestinians and wounded dozens of others as thousands of displaced people approached an aid distribution site of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in central Gaza on Tuesday, local health authorities said. Medics said the casualties were rushed at two hospitals, the Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, and the Al-Quds in Gaza City, in the north. The Israeli military said they are looking into the incident. Last week it warned Palestinians not to approach routes leading to GHF sites between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. local time, describing these roads as closed military zones. There was no immediate GHF comment on Tuesday's incident. The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. However, many Gazans say they have to walk for hours to reach the sites, meaning they have to start travelling well before dawn if they are to stand any chance of receiving food. While the GHF has said there have been no incidents at its so-called secure distribution sites, Palestinians seeking aid have described disorder and access routes to the sites have been beset by chaos and deadly violence. 'I went there at 2 a.m. hoping to get some food, on my way there, I saw people returning empty-handed, they said aid packages have run out in five minutes, this is insane and isn't enough,' said Mohammad Abu Amr, 40, a father of two. 'Dozens of thousands arrive from the central areas and from the northern areas too, some of them walked for over 20 km (12 miles), only to come back home with disappointment,' he told Reuters via a chat app. He said he heard the firing but didn't see what happened. Israel allowed limited UN-led operations to resume on May 19 after an 11-week blockade in the enclave of 2.3 million people, where experts have warned a famine looms. The UN has described the aid allowed into Gaza as 'drop in the ocean.' Witnesses said at least 40 trucks carrying flour for UN warehouses were looted by desperate displaced Palestinians as well as thieves near Nabulsi roundabout along the coastal road in Gaza City. The war erupted after Hamas-led militants took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, Israel's single deadliest day. Israel's military campaign has since killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health authorities in Gaza, and flattened much of the coastal enclave.
