Trapped by the Blockade: Gaza’s Cancer Patients Face Death as Treatment Vanishes

In Gaza, a cancer diagnosis has increasingly become a death sentence, as 11,000 patients remain trapped without treatment amid the ongoing Israeli blockade and the collapse of the healthcare system.

Before the war, Hani Naim received regular cancer treatment in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Now, he is among the thousands stranded, unable to access the radiotherapy he desperately needs. “I cannot access any treatment at all,” he told Al Jazeera.

The crisis has been magnified by the destruction of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, once the sole specialized cancer treatment center in Gaza. Bombed and rendered unusable by Israeli forces, doctors now describe it as a “ghost hospital.” Medical teams have relocated to makeshift clinics in places like Nasser Medical Complex but lack essential equipment, diagnostic tools, and chemotherapy drugs.

Mohammed Abu Nada, the medical director of the Gaza Cancer Centre, described a situation of total helplessness. “We lost the only hospital capable of diagnosing and treating cancer… We have no chemotherapy,” he said.

Doctors report that cancer-related deaths in Gaza have tripled since the war began in October 2023. In the Khan Younis area alone, two to three cancer patients now die every day. Without chemotherapy and radiotherapy, cancers spread “like wildfire,” Abu Nada said, adding that treatment capabilities have been set back “50 years.”

Despite ceasefire agreements, Israel continues to restrict the entry of critical medical supplies. Abu Nada noted that while commercial goods like chocolates and chips have entered Gaza, life-saving cancer treatments and diagnostic equipment have not.

“They brought in chocolates, nuts, and chips … but treatments for chronic diseases, cancer treatments, and diagnostic devices have not entered at all,” he said, dismissing Israeli claims of free aid flow as “propaganda.”

Even pain management is collapsing. Essential painkillers are now rationed, given only to patients with the most advanced and widespread cancers.

Currently, about 3,250 patients hold official referrals for treatment abroad but remain trapped due to the continued closure of the Rafah crossing and Israel’s ban on medical evacuations.

For the doctors who remain, the feeling is one of powerlessness and despair.

“What use is a doctor without tools?” Abu Nada asked. “The doctor has nothing left to do but sit and cry next to this patient who is denied treatment and denied travel.”

Source: Al Jazeera reporting from Gaza, including interviews with patient Hani Naim and Dr. Mohammed Abu Nada of the Gaza Cancer Centre.