Gaza – As the conflict between Israel and Hamas moves, the Health System in the Gaza Strip has almost collapsed, with doctors and international aid organizations that warn that the last important hospital in South Gaza now has an imminent risk of not being able to function due to the lack of supplies and personnel necessary to treat the injured and sick.
The Nasser medical complex, located in the center of Khan Youis in southern Gaza, was once a lifeguard for the southern region of the strip. Now, it is surrounded by neighborhoods under evacuation orders of the Israeli army, and the roads that carry it are low bombing and bombing.
Despite being designated by the Israeli army as an installation that should not be evacuated, the surrounding area is labeled as a red zone by the Israeli army, which means that citizens in the area should evacuate because it is likely that military action occurs in the area.
The Israeli army has previously asked for evacuations of hospitals in Gaza after evacuating the surrounding areas, before the large -scale raids that the IDF said they were militarily necessary since Hamas agents had embedded in those hospitals. The IDF previously raided Nasser hospital itself, spending a week in the complex in February 2024.
Premature babies are being treated in the midst of Israeli attacks at Nasser hospital, since they are at risk due to the shortage of medicines, medical supplies and children’s formula in Khan Yunis, Gaza on June 19, 2025.
Doaa albaz/anodolus getty images
The IDFs have also attacked the Nasser hospital without issuing evacuation orders. In March of this year, he made a strike on the hospital surgery wing. The IDF said he was aimed at a member of the Hamas political office that operates from the hospital and confirmed the strike in a statement at that time. Hamas said that the main member of Hamas who was attacked, Ismail Barhoum, was receiving medical treatment in the hospital when he was killed. A hospital doctor said a teenager was also killed in the attack.
“The hospital continues to work, continues to provide an extremely high level service, even with limited resources,” Dr. Mark Brauner told ABC News, an emergency doctor who recently left ABC News installation in an interview on Thursday. “But it is extremely uncomfortable to be very close to the war. The bombs are exploiting just hundreds of meters away, and shots can be heard throughout the day.”
Dr. Brauner said that Nasser hospital staff is treating patients who not only suffer injuries caused by air attacks but also by chronic malnutrition.
“One of the most important aspects of healing an injury is protein intake, and they have no protein in their diets,” he said. That delays healing and increases the risk of infection, he said, adding: “There are at least 100 children at direct risk due to the lack of pediatric formula.”
The Israel-Hamas War has had a gloomy human touch. Since the war began, almost 56,000 people in Gaza have been killed and more than 131,000 have been injured, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, directed by Hamas. The war began on October 7, 2023, when 1,200 people died in a surprise attack led by Hamas against southern Israel. Hundreds more were taken as hostages. It is believed that at least 20 living hostages still remain in the captivity of Hamas.
A Palestinian youth cries while waiting for news about an injured relative in Israeli strikes in Khan Yunis, at the Nasser hospital at the Southern Gaza Strip on June 3, 2025.
AFP through Getty Images
The Nasser Hospital is now the only main hospital in full functioning in the Strip in Gaza del Sur. The few remaining hospitals in the city of Gaza are operating at a minimum capacity, and there are no hospitals in operation in northern Gaza.
“The medical services do not have critical resources, with almost half of the essential supplies already exhausted, and more than a fifth, 21 percent, which is projected in two months,” said the United Nations relief and works agency for Palestine refugees in the Near East in an update of June 20.
Also known as UNRWA, the organization is the main UN agency that operates within Gaza.
Only five of the UNRA’s 22 health centers and two rented facilities in UNRWA used as temporary health centers are still operational in Gaza as of June 15, UNRA said.
The Gaza Ministry of Health, directed by Hamas, describes a serious situation when it comes to the health system of the territory.
“The remaining operating hospitals in the Strip will have no more time to continue operating in the face of the serious crises they face. Hospitals are experiencing overcrowding with injured and sick patients, exceeding their capacity, especially in care units for hospitalized and intensive patients,” the ministry said in a statement of June 25.
In general, only 45 of the 312 Gaza operations rooms are still in service, and most work with an extremely limited capacity, said the Ministry of Health of Gaza. Cancer and cardiac patients are among the most affected by the shortage of medicine and medical supply, with 47% of essential medicines and 65% of medical supplies now in Stock Zero, the ministry said.
According to the Ministry, nine of 34 oxygen stations are partially operational, and blood banks are almost empty, according to the Ministry.
“Community blood donation campaigns have become useless due to the worsening of malnutrition and anemia,” the ministry said.
Affected supplies include “medicine for noncommunicable, antimicrobial diseases and antiparasitic products, dermatological and eye preparations, analgesic and anti -inflammatory medications, gastrointestinal products, respiratory medications and family planning methods,” said the UNNA in the situational update.
Earlier this week, the World Health Organization (WHO) delivered medical aid to Gaza for the first time since March 2, wrote general director Tedros Adanom Ghebreyesus On the social platform X.
The sending of nine trucks included “essential” medical supplies, 2,000 units of blood and 1,500 units of plasma, said Ghebreyesus.
The supplies were transported from Israel through the crossing point of Kerem Shalom without any informed looting, and the blood and plasma were delivered to the cold storage installation of the Nasser hospital for distribution to other medical centers, the organization and the hospital reported.
COGAT, the coordination of government activities in the territories, the Israeli authority that supervises the supplies that enter the Gaza Strip, confirmed the sending of medical supplies.
“Together with blood units, medical supplies trucks and emergency medications and chronic care entered Gaza to support the medical response,” Cogat said in the statement. “We continually facilitate medical and humanitarian responses for the civilian population in Gaza.”
A mother observes while her baby born prematurely is examined in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Nasser Hospital in Khan Young
Mariam Dagga/AP
However, Ghebreyesus said the delivery was far from being sufficient to meet the needs within Gaza.
“These medical supplies are just a drop in the ocean,” he said in the X Post. “Scale aid is essential to save lives. Who asks for immediate delivery, without obstacles and sustained health aid to Gaza through all possible routes”?
For some, even these rare deliveries are too late.
Grupal doctors without borders evacuated most of their staff at Nasser’s hospital two weeks ago, citing security concerns.
“I no longer want to call it a collapsed system. There is no health system in Gaza,” Dr. Mohammed Abu Mughaiseeb, a medical coordinator of the group in Gaza in an interview, told ABC News.
“The hospitals that remain are overwhelmed with massive victims, many of the food distribution points. We are treating patients with serious burns and complicated injuries, and we do not have supplies, fuel or infrastructure to handle it,” he said.
Some patients are also suffering because the medical care available in the Gaza strip does not meet the level of care they need.
The Gaza Ministry of Health said that 513 patients have died due to trips for medical care, and 338 cancer patients have died while waiting to go to treatment abroad.
An IDF spokesman did not comment immediately on the current travel restrictions in Gaza.
Despite these challenges, doctors and Nasser hospital staff continue their work.
The scarcity of electricity is also exacerbating the crisis. According to the Ministry of Health, only 49 hospitals generators continue to function, and are even operating with limited fuel.
“We are enduring a thread,” Brauner said. “This is not a sustainable situation. If Nasser falls, the entire southern region will run out of hospital. And that will be the final collapse.”
