Gaza’s hospitals lost 40% of their kidney patients, says head of Al-Shifa

Gaza’s hospitals have lost 40 per cent of their kidney patients due to the shortage of medical supplies, the director of Al-Shifa Hospital has confirmed.

“There are only three intensive care beds for [kidney] patients in the northern Gaza Strip, in addition to only 20 dialysis machines, despite the return of hundreds of thousands of displaced people from the southern governorates to the north of the Strip since the ceasefire started,” explained Dr Mohamed Abu Salmiya on Sunday. “Moreover, many patients in intensive care and premature babies are dying due to the shortage of oxygen cylinders.”

The Palestinian Information Centre reported that Abu Salmiya warned that Israel is persisting in disrupting the humanitarian protocol of the ceasefire agreement. He stressed the need to provide Gaza’s hospitals with medicines, medical equipment and disposables.

The hospitals also suffer from a severe shortage of oxygen because the Israeli occupation army has destroyed 10 central oxygen stations in its genocidal war since October, 2023.

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