Gaza’s health infrastructure is in crisis. The immense damage dealt by Israel’s prolonged assault has left 94% of health facilities damaged or destroyed.

By the time the temporary ceasefire was announced in January 2025, only 50% of Gaza’s hospitals were still in partial operation. Those that have remained open have faced a daily struggle to provide for wounded and traumatised patients due to critical shortages of medicine, fuel and basic supplies.

Exhausted healthcare teams in Gaza have been continuously responding to medical crises for over 17 months now and despite the ceasefire, the conditions in which they work continue to be horrific.

During this time, hospitals and medical centres have been targeted relentlessly. Gaza’s largest medical facility, Al-Shifa hospital, which normally serves more than 500,000 a year, reportedly suffered catastrophic damage to 95% of its building and equipment. The facility has only recently been able to restore partial services.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has documented hundreds of attacks on healthcare facilities, including the bombing and shelling of hospitals and clinics, and ambulances and paramedics as they attempted to reach injured people.

More than 1,000 health workers have been killed, meaning that while some hospitals are operational, they simply do not have the staff to keep up with the number of injured patients arriving.