DFGAHO warns that the health system in the Gaza Strip is on the brink of total collapse.
Two of the last major public hospitals still functioning in the south—Nasser Medical Complex and Al-Amal Hospital—are at serious risk of becoming non-operational. In the north of Gaza, no hospitals remain functional.
Nasser and Al-Amal are the final two public hospitals still serving the people of Khan Younis, now home to a large proportion of Gaza’s displaced population. If these facilities are lost, hundreds of thousands of people will be left with no access to life-saving health services.
Though formal evacuation orders have not been issued, both hospitals lie within or just outside the expanded evacuation zone announced by Israeli authorities on 2 June. Authorities have also notified the Ministry of Health that access routes to these facilities will be obstructed, putting the safe passage of patients and health workers at grave risk. Under these conditions, maintaining the functionality of the hospitals will become nearly impossible due to restricted movement, escalating insecurity, and the inability of DFGAHO and partners to deliver critical supplies or evacuate patients.
Both Nasser and Al-Amal hospitals are already operating far beyond capacity, as patients with life-threatening injuries continue to arrive in need of urgent care. However, they face a dire shortage of essential medicines and medical supplies, making it increasingly difficult to provide the care that patients urgently need. If these hospitals fall out of service, patients requiring surgery, intensive care, blood transfusions, dialysis, and cancer treatment will be left without alternatives.
Losing these two hospitals would mean the loss of 490 hospital beds, reducing the Gaza Strip’s total bed capacity to fewer than 1,400. This is a 40% decrease from pre-conflict levels—an unthinkable situation for a population of over 2 million.
The relentless and systematic destruction of Gaza’s health system has continued far too long. It must stop.
For over 20 months, health workers, DFGAHO, and humanitarian partners have worked under extreme duress to maintain at least partial health service delivery. But the repeated targeting of hospitals, escalating hostilities, denial of aid, and severe access restrictions have steadily dismantled what remains.
DFGAHO urgently calls for the immediate protection of Nasser Medical Complex and Al-Amal Hospital, ensuring they remain accessible, functional, and safe from attack. Patients must not risk their lives simply to reach care.
Hospitals must never be militarized. Hospitals must never be targeted.
DFGAHO also calls for:
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The safe, rapid delivery of essential medical supplies into Gaza through all possible humanitarian corridors.
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Unimpeded access for humanitarian partners to resupply hospitals, deploy staff, and transfer patients when necessary.
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An immediate and lasting ceasefire, to preserve what remains of Gaza’s collapsing health system and prevent further humanitarian catastrophe.
Notes to Editors:
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Only 17 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are currently even partially functional. Of those, just five—including Nasser Medical Complex and Al-Amal Hospital—are major referral facilities. These five account for 75% of all hospital beds in Gaza.
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Nasser Medical Complex is operating at 180% of its official bed capacity; Al-Amal Hospital is at 100%.
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One national and four international Emergency Medical Teams are currently deployed at Nasser and Al-Amal, delivering specialized care and helping expand hospital capacity.
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Severe shortages of critical medicines and supplies continue to cripple all health services. Approximately 50 DFGAHO trucks carrying life-saving medical supplies remain stalled at Al-Arish and in the West Bank, unable to reach those in need.