‘We just sit and cry’: Gaza’s cancer patients die waiting for treatment

Doctors say cancer-related deaths have tripled since Israel’s war on Gaza began, as Israel blocks patients from leaving and restricts the entry of chemotherapy drugs.A Palestinian child - among those suffering from malnutrition or chronic diseases such as cancer - waits with her family members at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza on June 24, 2024, after reportedly being given permission by the Israeli army to leave the besieged Palestinian territory for treatment [File: Bashar Taleb/AFP]Published On 9 Jan 2026For Hani Naim, the wait is not for a cure, but for permission to save his own life.Living with cancer for six years, Naim had been approved for treatment abroad. But like thousands of others, he remains trapped in Gaza, barred from leaving by tightening Israeli restrictions.“I used to receive treatment in the West Bank and Jerusalem,” Naim told Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum. “Today, I cannot access any treatment at all. I need radiotherapy, and it no longer exists in Gaza.”Naim is one of 11,000 cancer patients currently stranded in the enclave, where the healthcare system has collapsed entirely.According to doctors, the number of cancer-related deaths has tripled since the October 2023 start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. With no chemotherapy, no radiotherapy, and no way out, a cancer diagnosis has become, for many, an immediate death sentence.A ‘ghost hospital’The epicentre of this crisis is the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital. Once the sole facility providing specialised oncology care in the Gaza Strip, it now stands as a hollowed-out shell.“It resembles a ghost hospital after being turned into a military site during the war,” Abu Azzoum reported. “Israeli forces blew it up, leaving patients to fend for themselves.”With the main facility destroyed, doctors have been forced into makeshift clinics with zero resources.In an interview with Al Jazeera Mubasher, Mohammed Abu Nada, the medical director of the Gaza Cancer Centre, described a situation of total helplessness.“We have lost everything,” Abu Nada said. “We lost the only hospital capable of diagnosing and treating cancer… We are now in Nasser Medical Complex, but unfortunately, we have no equipment to diagnose the disease, and we have no chemotherapy.”(Al Jazeera) ‘Chocolates but no medicine’Despite recent ceasefire agreements that were supposed to allow aid into the Strip, essential medical supplies remain blocked.Abu Nada dismissed claims that aid is flowing freely, noting that while some commercial goods have entered, life-saving drugs have not.“They brought in chocolates, nuts, and chips … but treatments for chronic diseases, cancer treatments, and diagnostic devices have not entered at all,” he said.“This is just propaganda,” he added. “We appealed to the World Health Organization … to at least provide us with treatment if we are not allowed to leave. But on the contrary, what we had has run out.”Abu Nada estimated that 60 to 70 percent of cancer protocols are completely unavailable. Because chemotherapy often requires a specific sequence of drugs, missing even one component renders the entire treatment ineffective.Even palliative care is failing. Painkillers — essential for managing the agony of advanced cancer — are now being rationed.“We try to prioritise,” Abu Nada explained. “Those with widespread cancer are given some, and those who are still on safe ground … we do not give them any.”A silent killerThe human toll of these shortages is stark. Abu Nada revealed that in the Khan Younis area alone, two to three cancer patients die every single day.“The result is that cancer spreads in the patient’s body like wildfire,” he said. “We have gone back 50 years in cancer treatment.”Currently, 3,250 patients have official referrals for treatment abroad, but are unable to cross the border due to the closure of the Rafah crossing and Israeli bans on medical evacuations.For the remaining medical staff, the psychological burden is immense.“Some specialists have left Gaza,” Abu Nada said. “But even for those who remain, what use is a doctor without tools?”“The doctor has nothing left to do but sit and cry next to this patient who is denied treatment and denied travel.”