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Healthcare at Breaking Point
The Embassy of the State of Palestine in India issued an urgent appeal to the international community, particularly the Government of India, warning that Gaza’s healthcare system is nearing total collapse amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza and worsening financial pressures in the occupied West Bank.
In a statement issued in New Delhi, the embassy said the situation was an “unprecedented humanitarian and public health catastrophe” and cited the World Health Organization figures that only 19 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain partially functional and operating under emergency conditions.
The embassy warned that hospitals are facing shortages of essential supplies including anaesthesia, antibiotics, dialysis materials, blood units, insulin, surgical equipment and fuel required to run generators, while thousands of patients need urgent evacuation for specialised treatment unavailable inside Gaza.
It also said more than 12,000 bodies remain trapped beneath rubble and that damage to cemeteries has left human remains exposed in several locations, contributing to rising cases of skin diseases and infestations such as lice, fleas and bedbugs.
Beyond Gaza, the embassy warned of a worsening healthcare crisis in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, attributing it largely to Israeli financial measures, particularly the withholding of Palestinian tax revenues, and said government hospitals in the West Bank performed around 65,000 surgeries last year but only about 19,500 operations have been carried out so far in 2026.
UN Security Council Push
At a session convened by the United Nations Security Council in New York time, Tom Fletcher described the adoption of Security Council resolution 2803 as a “moment of hope — fragile but real,” while stressing that Gaza remains in severe crisis even though it is no longer classified as famine (Phase 5).
Fletcher said the resolution yielded results including reducing civilian harm from Israeli military strikes, helping to secure the return of the remaining hostages held by Hamas after the attacks of October 7, 2023, and easing some restrictions on humanitarian access.
He told the Security Council that “These fragile gains represent the minimum that Palestinians need,” and warned that Gaza is “holding together thanks to temporary humanitarian solutions and the resilience of the Palestinian people, and this is an unsustainable situation”.
Fletcher said about 1,000 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire, including more than 250 children, and he described Gaza as “the world’s most dangerous place to deliver humanitarian assistance,” citing nearly 600 aid workers killed over roughly three years.
He closed with three main demands from the Security Council: protect civilians and humanitarian workers, ensure safe, secure, and unobstructed delivery of aid, and provide adequate funding, while urging full implementation of resolution 2803 including a real ceasefire and the establishment of civilian leadership in Gaza.
Aid Access, Funding, and Risk
As UN warnings continued that humanitarian conditions are worsening despite a ceasefire, Pakistan’s UN envoy Asim Iftikhar Ahmad told the Security Council that “ceasefire violations continue, and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza remains acute.”
Ahmad said the “core issue is the arbitrary denial and delay of humanitarian access, a recurring pattern of Israeli policy,” and he warned that more than 90% of Gaza’s population has been displaced and only half of the territory’s hospitals remain partly functional.
The UN briefing also highlighted funding shortfalls, with the UN official saying less than a quarter of the humanitarian appeal had been funded through mid-2026, reflected in meals not delivered and water not distributed.
In the same Security Council context, the UN official warned that civilians cannot wait for diplomatic solutions while they remain “hungry, facing rat bites, homeless, and out of school,” and said 70% of the population need adequate shelter and no hospital is operating at full capacity.
Separately, the ICRC said extremely harsh winter conditions are further worsening the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, noting that most of the more than 2 million residents have already been displaced multiple times and that winter storms caused major floods in low-lying areas and in refugee camps.
