The Gaza Ministry of Health has warned of an unprecedented humanitarian disaster as essential medical supplies across the besieged Gaza Strip have virtually run out under Israel’s ongoing blockade.

In an urgent statement issued Sunday, the ministry reported that 52 percent of life-saving essential medicines are now completely out of stock. The situation is even more dire for medical consumables, with 71 percent unavailable, while 70 percent of laboratory supplies have also been exhausted.

Health officials said the collapse of supply chains, caused by Israel’s sustained restrictions on the entry of aid and medical resources, is placing thousands of wounded and chronically ill Palestinians at imminent risk of death.

“As the need for medical interventions for wounded patients and the sick continues to rise, the crisis is worsening,” the ministry said, adding that critical departments are shutting down due to the lack of basic medicines and equipment.

Life-saving services such as primary healthcare, emergency surgery, intensive care, oncology, and hematology are now operating under extreme shortages. Departments including orthopedics, nephrology, dialysis, ophthalmology, general surgery, and intensive care are facing what doctors describe as “impossible conditions” amid continuous patient inflows and dwindling resources.

Medical staff in Gaza say they are being forced to make heartbreaking decisions, prioritizing who may live and who may die due to the absence of basic supplies such as anesthetics, antibiotics, chemotherapy drugs, dialysis fluids, and sterile equipment.

The ministry urgently appealed to the international community to immediately provide Gaza with medical supplies, warning that without swift intervention, specialized departments will be forced to completely shut down, leaving countless Palestinians to suffer and die without treatment.

Human rights groups have repeatedly accused Israel of using medical deprivation as a weapon of war, while global institutions have so far failed to enforce meaningful humanitarian access to the besieged enclave.

Gaza’s health authorities stressed that restoring full and unhindered entry of medical aid is now a matter of life and death for the civilian population. (ILKHA)