Press Statement Issued by the Ministry of Health
On World Health Day: Gaza Tracks Its Pain with Figures That Condemn Global Silence
April 7, 2026
While the world marks “World Health Day” under slogans promoting the right to treatment and health well-being, Gaza lives a starkly different reality—one where life is reduced to the rubble of hospitals and the groans of the wounded. This is not merely a passing shortage of resources; it is a near-total collapse of the healthcare system resulting from systematic targeting, transforming the right to medical care into a daily battle for survival.
The health crisis in the Gaza Strip has transcended traditional definitions of emergency, reaching a catastrophic level where the most basic human health rights are violated. Patients are deprived of treatment, and surgeries are performed under agonizingly harsh conditions—a scene that embodies the failure of the international system in the face of unprecedented human suffering.
The Reality in Numbers:
The following figures reveal the vast chasm between what international laws guarantee and what the reality on the ground imposes:
• Casualties: The total number of martyrs has reached 72,208, with 172,068 wounded, including 21,524 children.
• Medical Supplies: Deficits have reached 50% in pharmaceutical stocks, 57% in medical disposables, and 71% in laboratory testing materials, threatening the system’s ability to respond to growing needs.
• Oncology Services: Among the hardest-hit sectors, with a 61% shortage in specialized medications for the 4,100 cancer patients in the Strip.
• Essential Care: Primary care, neurology, nephrology, surgery, and intensive care services face shortages exceeding 40% in essential medicines.
• Specialized Surgery: Open-heart surgeries and cardiac catheterizations have ceased entirely due to lack of resources, alongside an 89% acute shortage in ophthalmic surgery supplies.
• Post-Ceasefire Victims: 715 martyrs have been recorded since the ceasefire, including 223 children, due to the continued direct targeting of civilians.
• Hospital Capacity: Hospital bed capacity has dropped by more than 55%, even as the number of patients and wounded continues to rise.
• Facilities Out of Service: 22 hospitals and 90 health centers are currently non-functional, with severe infrastructure damage to remaining facilities.
• Dialysis & Imaging: Radiology services and medical equipment face acute shortages; only 108 dialysis machines remain to serve 676 patients.
• Amputations: 5,000 cases of amputation have been recorded, including 980 children, 555 women, 595 elderly, and 2,870 men, all of whom require long-term rehabilitation.
• Medical Referrals: 21,367 sick and wounded individuals are on waiting lists for overseas treatment, including 195 critical cases. To date, 1,517 patients have died while waiting.
• Displacement Camps: Health conditions are worsening in shelters and displacement camps, with a surge in waterborne and foodborne diseases alongside weak health surveillance systems.
• Detained Personnel: 83 health workers remain in detention under harsh conditions, deprived of their basic rights.
• Energy Crisis: The shortage of fuel, oils, and spare parts for electrical generators threatens to shut down all remaining health services at any moment.
The Silence of the World
The silence with which the world meets this grim reality in Gaza’s health sector is an overt endorsement of the continued “Health Genocide” and the indirect killing of the sick and wounded.
In light of this collapse, the question remains: Will these urgent appeals and demands find a place on international agendas? Or will Gaza remain besieged by policies of “life-dripping”—the rationing of survival—which the world attempts to beautify by labeling it “humanitarian aid”?
Ministry of Health
April 7, 2026