After a month-long siege imposed by Israeli authorities in Gaza, some critical medications are now in short supply and are running out, said Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today. Israeli authorities must immediately cease the collective punishment of Palestinians, end their inhumane siege of Gaza, and uphold their responsibilities as an occupying power to facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid at scale.
No aid has entered Gaza in over a month
For over a month, no aid or commercial trucks have entered Gaza, marking the longest period since the start of the war without any trucks entering the Strip. On March 2, Israeli authorities imposed a complete siege of Gaza, and on March 9, they cut the electricity needed to power water desalination plants. This total blockade of aid and electricity has deprived people of most basic needs—including food, water, and medicines— and could lead to a high number of health complications and deaths.
“The Israeli authorities have condemned the people of Gaza to unbearable suffering with their deadly siege,” said Myriam Laaroussi, MSF emergency coordinator in Gaza. “This deliberate infliction of harm on people is like a slow death. It must end immediately.”
The ceasefire in Gaza must be restored immediately
Read moreThe siege has forced MSF teams to start rationing medications such as pain killers, provide less effective treatment, and turn some patients away because they don’t have the proper tools to treat them. Teams are also running out of surgical supplies such as anesthetics, pediatric antibiotics, and medicines for chronic conditions like epilepsy, hypertension, and diabetes. As a result of rationing, MSF teams in some primary health care clinics are unable to provide pain relief when conducting wound dressings for people injured in the renewed conflict. MSF teams are also no longer able to donate blood bags to Nasser Hospital due to low supply.
Skin conditions rise amid lack of hygiene supplies
As a result of the lack of soap and clean water for Palestinians across the Strip, MSF teams are seeing an increase of people with skin conditions like scabies. In February, MSF teams treated 565 cases of skin conditions at the Al Hekker clinic in Deir al-Balah and 1,198 cases at the Al-Attar clinic in Khan Younis. Just two weeks into March, the number of cases at Al Hekker had already reached 437—nearly 80 percent of February's total. At Al-Attar, 711 cases had been treated, which is almost 60 percent of the number seen in February.
However, the blockade has left MSF teams unable to provide medications to treat skin conditions, as only a small amount of lotion is available to alleviate people’s pain. Skin conditions like scabies require treatment for the entire family to prevent spread and reinfection, but this is impossible without medications and clean water.
Dire consequences for people with non-communicable diseases
For people with non-communicable diseases like hypertension and diabetes, the consequences of the lack of treatment may lead to severe complications, such as permanent disabilities and in some cases even death. Since the blockade, MSF teams have only been able to give patients medication to cover their needs for 7 to 10 days.
“I don’t have any blood pressure medication left,” said Sobheya Al-Beshiti, a patient at the MSF clinic in Attar, Khan Younis. “My son searched for two days and couldn’t find any. What can I do? Stay without treatment? If I don’t take my blood thinner, my nose starts bleeding and I start coughing blood.”
During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, patients in MSF clinics reported weight loss and lack of access to proper food.
“Right now, my blood levels are low, and my weight is also low,” said a pregnant mother in an MSF clinic in Al-Mawasi, Khan Younis. “There aren’t enough food supplies to help me gain weight or increase my blood levels. The rising prices are a huge problem in the city. People simply cannot afford to buy necessities because of how expensive everything is [due to the limited supplies].”
