Supply Restrictions Threaten Life-Saving Treatments in Gaza
The needs in Gaza are massive, yet not enough aid is entering because Israeli authorities are blocking it. Every day, we see the impact of the restrictions on medical supplies in our hospitals and clinics.
Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has not been able to bring in any supplies since 1 January 2026.
“Currently, we are struggling with a critical shortage in our stock of our essential chronic medications. Almost 50 percent are critically low, including medications for diabetes, hypertension, thyroid gland and asthma and other respiratory diseases, which jeopardises our ability to provide essential care for chronic diseases.
We have already had to stop accepting new patients to our non-communicable disease (NCD) services, limiting the provision of care and dispensing medicine to our existing group of patients. Not being able to provide proper care will inevitably lead to the preventable deaths of patients suffering from chronic diseases.
We are also seeing a shortage of dressing material in our facilities, such as gauzes and compresses, which will impact all our wound care related activities, especially in our field hospital, where we provide dressing for surgical interventions, post-operative care, and trauma wounds.
Having enough dressings is essential to avoid infected wounds or infected burns. On average, we receive more than 100 patients who need dressing materials every day in the outpatient department in one of our field hospitals, as well as up to 30 burn patients admitted every day.”
Spotlight: 3D printing for burn care
The fragile ceasefire that took effect on 10 October 2025, has not stopped regular attacks by Israeli forces across Gaza, leading to large numbers of people with severe burn injuries.
In Gaza, MSF continues to treat an alarming number of patients with severe facial burns in our clinic in Gaza City. Among the most vulnerable are children, who make up 85 percent of our current group of 88 active patients in the clinic.
To prevent permanent disfigurement and disability, patients require specialised pressure therapy masks. Since 2020, MSF has been the only provider of 3D-printed physiotherapy masks in Gaza.
These masks apply consistent pressure to healing burns, preventing severe scarring that can impair breathing, movement, and facial function.
But since the Israeli authorities revoked the registration of MSF to work in Palestine we've been unable to get new supplies into Gaza. We are running out of filament, the essential material needed to create each customised mask. At the same time, only two functioning 3D scanners remain in the entire Strip. Spare parts for printers are also blocked.
Malfunctioning equipment
“Between August and September 2025 during the full blockade, we had to resort to using non-sterile gauze, which the team sterilised in batches, which is not an optimal procedure, that may carry a risk of infection and used as a last resort, and we are close to this point again now. We have been able to get some limited supplies of compresses from other MSF facilities, but this is not a sustainable option when there are not enough stocks across hospitals.
Another critical impact of these restrictions is the supply strain on medical equipment. We have not been able to enter any new equipment since the beginning of this year, which is putting huge stress on our teams and activities.
To give an example of this, two weeks ago, during surgery on a two-year-old child, we had an incident where the orthopaedic drill was non-functional. This was the only one that we had in the field hospital. The team had to find a replacement from another hospital, which caused delay in the surgery and stress for the team.
Since we cannot bring in new supplies or spare parts, malfunctioning equipment can mean having to postpone or suspend surgeries, which can have severe consequences for patients, impacting their recovery process or even leading to a disability or the worsening of a disability.
We are completely dependent on the equipment that we already have inside Gaza, which has been used for a long time and due to the high need and strain, we are seeing more malfunctioning equipment.
Our teams are working hard to continue providing care, but they are under immense strain. Dedication and last-resort solutions cannot replace a stable and unhindered entry of supplies. We need medical supplies and equipment to enter Gaza now.”
