Since March 2025, Gaza has been under a total siege, and it’s been devastating for everyone, but especially for people living with chronic illnesses. With hospitals barely functioning, medicine nearly impossible to find, and medical equipment either destroyed or blocked from entering, thousands of patients are now living on the edge, without even the most basic care.
Every part of life here has turned into a struggle. From Gaza City in the north to Rafah in the south, residents are being killed not just by bombs, but by the slow, silent cruelty of hunger, untreated illness, and a complete healthcare collapse.
For people with diabetes, cancer, kidney failure, or heart conditions, there’s simply no lifeline left.
Surviving displacement while chronically ill
Take Faiz Abdo, a 67-year-old man who hasn’t had access to his diabetes or blood pressure medication in nearly seven months. He’s been displaced twice — first from Al-Bureij, then from Al-Nuseirat — and now lives in a makeshift shelter in Rafah, sharing a tin-walled room with five other families.
He’s developed complications from his diabetes and can no longer walk properly. Before the war, he received regular treatment at a local clinic. Now, he survives without food or medicine.
One family, three lives at risk
Another displaced man, Islam Abu Ruqa, told his story from a crowded school-turned-shelter in the south.
He’s living in a converted science lab with his wife and son — all of them chronically ill. Islam has cancer, his wife has kidney failure, and their son (who once donated a kidney to his mother) now lies bedridden, without even painkillers to ease his suffering.
A heart patient’s plea
Mohammed Abed, who urgently needs heart valve surgery, is just one of many patients whose treatment has been indefinitely delayed. “They keep postponing it because of the war and the lack of equipment,” he said. “I’m terrified my condition will get worse.” The cardiac catheterization tools needed for his operation just aren’t available anymore.
An epidemic of chronic illness born of war
More than 18 months of war have created a health crisis beyond imagination. Over 200,000 people now suffer from chronic diseases without medication or medical supervision.
Among them are 1,000 kidney patients in need of dialysis, 13,000 diabetics dependent on insulin, and nearly 20,000 cancer patients, including 122 children with leukemia. With every day that aid is blocked and hospitals are destroyed, more lives are lost.
“We are dying slowly.”
Sabah Yassin, a kidney patient, said it plainly: “Every night, I feel like I’m already among the dead.” Dialysis sessions — three or four times a week — are a matter of life and death, but they’re becoming impossible. “We walk to the hospital because there are no cars. We’re exhausted,” she said.
Dr. Munir Al-Bursh, Gaza’s health director, called kidney patients “the most at-risk group,” needing constant access to medication and equipment that no longer exists in Gaza.
System collapse and deadly shortages
At Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, Dr. Khalil Al-Daqran described the shortage of medical supplies as catastrophic. Over 60,000 children are now facing the risk of death due to malnutrition, and 650,000 children have been left without vaccines — a nightmare scenario that could spread disease beyond Gaza’s borders.
Dr. Ghazi Al-Yazji, who runs the kidney dialysis unit at Al-Shifa Medical Complex, shared even more devastating numbers: before the war, Gaza had around 1,100 dialysis patients. Today, 42% of them have died. Entire dialysis centers have been bombed or forced out of service. Patients trapped in their homes can’t reach the few units still operating.
“The destruction of dialysis machines forced us to reduce sessions,” Dr. Al-Yazji said. “It’s killing people.”
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