Gaza has no fully functioning hospital a year after ceasefire, rights group says

Gaza had no fully functioning hospital a year after the October 10, 2025 ceasefire began, according to a Physicians for Human Rights Israel assessment reported by The National on October 8. The group also reported no MRI equipment for the territory’s population of more than two million. Its findings describe a health system still unable to provide many forms of routine and specialist care.

Physicians for Human Rights Israel, or PHRI, characterized the overall improvement in healthcare as marginal. Its reported figures show how limited that change has been: intensive care capacity increased from 103 to 104 beds, while dialysis was available at 12 per cent of medical facilities, down from 17 per cent in October 2025. The figures come from PHRI’s assessment as reported by The National.

What the one-year assessment found

The absence of a fully functioning hospital is a measure of capacity, not a claim that every hospital has closed. The National reported PHRI’s finding alongside the lack of MRI equipment across Gaza. Together, those findings point to limits on hospital services and diagnostic imaging for a population exceeding two million. The cited reporting does not establish the assessment’s underlying methodology or provide its full tables, so the numerical findings remain attributed to PHRI.

PHRI said restrictions on medicine and equipment, limits on treatment abroad and obstacles to repairing healthcare facilities contributed to the continuing crisis. Milena Ansari, a PHRI director who wrote the report, said: ‘A year of “ceasefire” should have brought meaningful relief and rehabilitation to Palestinians and allowed the recovery and reconstruction of the decimated healthcare system.’ That is the report author’s assessment of the past year, rather than a projection of what will happen next.

Shortages and interruptions to treatment

An October 2 situation report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs described health conditions as critical. It cited widespread infectious diseases, crowded displacement sites, inadequate water and sanitation, shortages of medical supplies and fuel, and funding shortfalls. Those conditions affect both demand for care and the ability of facilities to provide it.

The UN report said shortages of essential medicines and supplies particularly affected trauma and wound care, infection prevention and control, and treatment of non-communicable diseases. It also identified shortages of adult antibiotics. Generator shutdowns linked to severe shortages of lubricant oil continued to disrupt healthcare delivery, according to the same report. These are practical constraints on treatment even where staff and facilities remain available.

Writing in an Al Jazeera opinion published on October 10, Sally Saleh, a Medical Aid for Palestinians worker in Gaza, described restrictions on medical supplies, difficulties accessing care and the suspension of services supported by her organization in some areas. Her first-person account illustrates the pressures described in the wider assessments, while reflecting the perspective of a healthcare worker and advocate rather than a system-wide audit.

Patients awaiting care outside Gaza

Treatment abroad remains a separate concern for patients whose care is unavailable locally. The National reported a Gaza Ministry of Health figure of at least 1,570 patients, including 264 children, who had died while awaiting medical evacuation. This is a ministry-attributed figure; the cited report does not independently establish the circumstances of every death or show that each death would have been prevented by an earlier evacuation.

Saleh wrote that more than 15,000 people were waiting for medical evacuation, attributing that figure to the World Health Organization. It is a count of people waiting, not a count of deaths, and comes through a separate account. The available reporting does not establish a common reporting date or definitions for comparing the evacuation figures directly.

The UN situation report attributed 1,431 fatalities and 5,026 injuries since the ceasefire announcement to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, based on reported deaths and injuries through September 30. OCHA described the ministry as operating under the de facto authorities. Those figures document the ministry’s reported toll through that date; they do not establish the circumstances of every incident.

One year on, the clearest change recorded in PHRI’s assessment is how little capacity has returned. Its reported bed and dialysis figures, together with the UN’s account of supply and fuel shortages, explain why patients continue to face constrained care. The cited reporting does not establish PHRI’s methodology or when the shortages and service interruptions might end.