From 8 to 11 October, Israel enforced a near-complete closure of Shu’fat refugee camp and adjacent areas of Anata. The area, home to refugees and non-refugees in east Jerusalem, is surrounded by Israel’s separation barrier, which takes the form of an 8- to 9-metre-high concrete wall enclosing the camp. In addition to the existing checkpoint west of the...

Moaayd is the driver of a mobile clinic for the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) operating in the Jordan Valley of the West Bank. He has been part of the team for 10 years, working with communities in remote areas that depend on mobile clinics for access to primary health care. The communities face obstacles to planning and development,...

Musaab, 21 years old, was in the third year of his university studies in Nablus, in the north of the West Bank. In the summer of 2022, he was diagnosed with a cancer called a synovial sarcoma in his left ankle. To confirm the diagnosis and to guide the best approach to his treatment, Musaab was referred to Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem for...

Fatma was a 19-month-old girl from Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. She died on 25 March 2022 after she was delayed access to lifesaving cardiac surgery for nearly three months. Fatma was born with a congenital heart condition known as an atrial septal defect. She needed curative surgery at Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem and was required by...

Amal, 38 years old from Gaza city, was found to have a brain aneurysm (a potentially life-threatening ballooning of a blood vessel) in March 2022. On 5 June 2022, Amal was referred to An-Najah University Hospital in Nablus, in the West Bank, for brain catheterization and scan (angiography), a procedure not available in the Gaza Strip. She made...

Khalid, 36 years old from Gaza city, has end stage kidney failure. For 16 years, he has been dependent on weekly haemodialysis (a procedure to remove waste and water from the blood, to perform the function of healthy kidneys). In late 2022, Khalid required referral out of Gaza for vascular surgery so that he would be able to keep having...

                                        9 May 2023 - Palestinians continue to encounter major obstacles to realizing the right to health. Today, WHO launches two reports, Right to Health 2019 to 2021 and Palestinian Voices 2022 to 2023. The reports outline how fragmentation of the Palestinian people, implementation of a permit regime, physical obstacles to movement, and protection gaps...

                                                                                            Gaza Health Access                                                                                                                                                                 Click to download Throughout the year, WHO continued to document the impact of barriers to health access on the Palestinian people in Gaza.Below are three of the cases documented from 2022 to 2023: Khalid “He is a patient and has the same right as any person who wants to get treatment.” Riham, wife of Khalid Khalid, 36...

                                  31 March 2023 – WHO has delivered a $1.5M shipment of critical medicines and medical supplies to Al-Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem through the generous support of UAE Aid. The shipment will help in plugging critical gaps in need to support the continuity of lifesaving health care at the hospital, which is currently facing disruption in...

In February 2023, there was a significant increase in attacks on health care in the West Bank. Health attacks occurred in the context of major incursions by Israeli forces into Palestinian towns and refugee camps and a rise in violence carried out by Israeli settler groups. WHO verified 47 health attacks in the first two months of 2023, which...