Daijiworld Media Network - Jerusalem
Jerusalem, Aug 6: The healthcare system in the occupied West Bank is nearing collapse due to mounting financial constraints and increasing movement restrictions imposed during the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, according to a report released on Thursday by Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI).
The report warns that shortages of medicines, underfunded hospitals and restricted access to healthcare have left hundreds of thousands of Palestinians struggling to receive essential medical treatment.
Among those affected is 70-year-old Bassam Musleh from the West Bank village of Iktaba, who spent six months searching for blood pressure and heart medication. Suffering from a heart condition and living with a pacemaker, Musleh said public pharmacies repeatedly ran out of stock while medicines at private pharmacies were beyond his financial reach.
His search ended only after he visited a mobile medical clinic operated by a local humanitarian organisation, where healthcare workers supplied the medicines listed on his worn prescription.
According to the PHRI report, the crisis has intensified since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza nearly three years ago.
The organisation said Israel has withheld billions of dollars in tax and customs revenues that it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA), the governing body responsible for administering parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The report said the prolonged withholding of these funds has severely affected the Palestinian Authority's ability to finance public healthcare services. As a result, authorities have struggled to pay salaries of healthcare workers, procure essential medicines and maintain the functioning of government hospitals, pharmacies and primary healthcare centres.
According to the report, around 75 per cent of public health facilities in the West Bank have reduced their operations and are now functioning only once or twice a week because of financial shortages.
In addition to the funding crisis, PHRI said Israeli military operations and the growing number of checkpoints across the West Bank have made it increasingly difficult for patients, ambulances and healthcare workers to reach hospitals and clinics.
The report noted that delays caused by military raids, road closures and movement restrictions have disrupted routine medical services and, in some cases, placed critically ill patients at risk by delaying emergency treatment.
Milena Ansari, Director of the Occupied Palestinian Territory Department at Physicians for Human Rights Israel and author of the report, warned that the continued deterioration of the healthcare system could have severe humanitarian consequences.
"If this continues, it is patients—not institutions—who will pay the price," Ansari said.
The report urged immediate measures to restore healthcare funding, ensure uninterrupted access to medicines and remove barriers preventing patients and medical personnel from accessing healthcare facilities.
It also called for sustained international attention to prevent further deterioration of healthcare services for Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank.