The healthcare crisis in the Gaza Strip has worsened amid a severe shortage of specialist doctors and the failure of increasing numbers of medical devices, reducing hospitals’ ability to diagnose complex cases and perform surgery requiring specialised expertise and equipment.
Decline in diagnostic equipment and shortages of laboratory supplies
The Gaza Health Ministry said the number of imaging and diagnostic devices available in the Strip had fallen from 635 to 240, as hospitals operated under growing pressure because of breakdowns and difficulties obtaining maintenance and spare parts. At Patient Friends Hospital, two of its 8 incubators for children had gone out of service, adding to the burden on paediatric care departments and limiting doctors’ options for treating cases requiring specialised monitoring and equipment.
The crisis is not limited to imaging equipment, as laboratories face widespread shortages of materials needed for tests. The shortfall in laboratory testing materials reached 87%, while the shortage of basic consumables used in laboratory and diagnostic tests reached 74%, according to health data published on 29 September 2026.
Blood gas tests, which are particularly necessary for heart patients and those in intensive care, have stopped, while automated clinical chemistry analysers used by laboratories for more than 60% of their tests have also broken down. Some sterilisation equipment and refrigerators used to store blood and plasma have also malfunctioned.
Critical cases prioritised in test scheduling
Bassem Hassan, head of the laboratory department at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, said medical teams were being forced, amid limited resources, to prioritise tests according to the severity of cases, giving priority to patients with kidney disease, cancer and heart disease, as well as those in intensive care units. Medical teams need laboratory results to determine drug doses, monitor patients’ responses to treatment and make urgent decisions about their condition.
The absence or delay of these results reduces the information available to doctors when choosing treatment or assessing the progression of a disease. Marwan al-Azayzeh, head of the cardiology department at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, said doctors sometimes resorted to private laboratories when patients could afford the cost.
He added that in other cases they relied on clinical examinations, electrocardiograms and the available indicators, although these did not provide a complete alternative to the tests needed to confirm or rule out certain diagnoses. In medical imaging services, only 5 of the 18 CT scanners in the Gaza Strip remain operational, and the remaining devices are operating beyond capacity.
MRI services halted and urgent tests reduced
Magnetic resonance imaging services have also stopped entirely after the destruction of 9 devices that had been available in the Strip. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Medical Complex, said medical teams had been forced to limit laboratory tests, X-rays and CT scans to the most urgent cases.
He said this situation forced doctors to choose between patients, deciding who needed an examination immediately and who could be postponed, leaving other patients on waiting lists even when the tests were necessary to diagnose their conditions or monitor their treatment.
Shortages threaten treatment for chronic patients and medical staff
The impact of the shortages extends to people with chronic illnesses. Khalil al-Daqran, spokesman for Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, said 350,000 patients with diabetes, high blood pressure and other chronic diseases were facing medicine shortages that threatened continuity of their treatment. He added that cancer, heart and kidney patients needed regular treatment that could not be postponed, while medical teams were working with severely limited resources.
Maher Shamieh, undersecretary at the Health Ministry, previously said the war had put 18 of the 38 hospitals completely out of service, while the other facilities were operating partially. He added that the ministry had recorded the deaths of 1701 health workers and the arrest of 363, alongside the departure of about 700 doctors, including a large number of specialists in highly specialised fields.
Damage to hospitals and equipment, together with the loss of specialised staff, has narrowed the options available to health institutions and doctors and reduced patients’ chances of receiving timely diagnosis, surgery and treatment, amid calls for the entry of the equipment, supplies and spare parts needed to maintain medical services.
