Palestine has formally requested India to assist with urgent medical supplies and support for the occupied territory, whose health sector is on the brink of collapse.
In a letter submitted via its embassy in New Delhi, Palestine directly blamed the catastrophic collapse of the healthcare sector on the ongoing “Israeli genocidal war, military attacks, mass destruction of medical infrastructure, severe restrictions on humanitarian access and financial strangulation measures”.
“On the 986th day of the ongoing Israeli genocidal war, the healthcare system in the Gaza Strip has reached an unprecedented level of devastation. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), only 19 out of 36 hospitals remain partially operational under extremely limited emergency conditions. The WHO has warned that Gaza's health system has reached a ‘breaking point’,” Palestine stated.
It explained that, in an attempt to address the growing humanitarian emergency, the government has provided tens of thousands of free health insurance policies to families who lost their sources of income during the ongoing Israeli genocidal war. This has placed enormous additional pressure on public hospitals and healthcare institutions already suffering from severe financial and logistical constraints.
However, the scale of the crisis is alarming. For instance, only around 19,500 surgeries have been carried out, while more than 11,000 scheduled surgeries have been postponed since the beginning of 2026 due to shortages of medicines, supplies, and operational capacity.
The figure is far lower compared to the approximately 65,000 surgeries conducted last year in Palestinian governmental hospitals in the West Bank.
“The Palestinian Ministry of Health currently seeks to provide approximately 520 essential medicines; however, nearly 180 of these medicines are now completely unavailable. Furthermore, out of 97 medicines specialised for cancer and tumour treatment, 50 are currently at zero stock levels, placing nearly 4,000 cancer patients at immediate risk,” it emphasised.
Palestine highlighted that the region is facing severe shortages of specialised medical consumables, including dialysis filters essential for kidney patients, surgical sutures used in delicate operations such as cardiac surgeries, and numerous other life‑saving medical supplies.
“The absence of these critical materials effectively condemns many patients to slow and preventable deaths. Today, the Palestinian healthcare sector is in desperate need of urgent international support, including the immediate provision of life‑saving, critically essential medicines and medical supplies worth $100 million (Sh12.9 billion),” the occupied territory noted.
“The Embassy of the State of Palestine calls upon the international community, the Government of India in particular, Indian humanitarian organisations, medical institutions, civil society organisations, and all concerned parties to urgently act to support the Palestinian healthcare sector, ensure the immediate and sustained delivery of humanitarian and medical assistance, and help protect the lives and dignity of Palestinian civilians.”
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