Gaza has no MRI scanners or fully functioning hospitals one year after ceasefire, says Israeli rights group

<a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/tags/gaza/" target="_blank" rel="" title="https://www.thenationalnews.com/tags/gaza/">Gaza</a> is without a single fully functioning hospital a year on from the ceasefire between <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/tags/israel/" target="_blank" rel="" title="https://www.thenationalnews.com/tags/israel/">Israel</a> and <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/tags/hamas/" target="_blank" rel="" title="https://www.thenationalnews.com/tags/hamas/">Hamas</a>, an Israeli human rights group has said. Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) said Gaza also had no MRI equipment for its population of more than two million. It said, in a new report, that only a marginal improvement could be reported in Gaza's overall healthcare situation. The World Health Organisation says there were 128 attacks on medical facilities during the first seven months of the ceasefire. Intensive care capacity “has increased by one bed only – from 103 to 104”, PHRI said. Dialysis is less available than before, provided by 12 per cent of medical facilities compared to 17 per cent in October 2025. An Israeli blockade of Gaza's borders means only a fraction of Palestinians in need of medical treatment abroad have been able to receive it. Gaza's Ministry of Health reports that at least 1,570 patients have died, including 264 children, while waiting for medical evacuation. The ceasefire that began on October 10 last year ended the worst of Israel's two-year onslaught on the strip, which was triggered by <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/opinion/editorial/2026/10/07/october-7-israel-gaza-palestine-hamas-middle-east/" target="_blank" rel="" title="https://www.thenationalnews.com/opinion/editorial/2026/10/07/october-7-israel-gaza-palestine-hamas-middle-east/">the October 7 attacks of 2023</a>. But more than 1,400 people have been killed in near-daily attacks by Israel, which still occupies much of the territory. PHRI said Israel's restrictions on medicine and equipment, failure to allow patients to be treated abroad, and obstruction of efforts to repair Gaza's healthcare system were part of the pattern of alleged genocide. The international definition of genocide includes “the deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/tags/palestine/" target="_blank" rel="" title="https://www.thenationalnews.com/tags/palestine/">Palestinian</a> population”. “A year of ‘ceasefire’ should have brought meaningful relief and rehabilitation to Palestinians and allowed the recovery and reconstruction of the decimated healthcare system,” said Milena Ansari, a PHRI director who wrote the new report. “The data show that the ceasefire did not stop the genocide – it changed the way it is being carried out. Israeli policy continues to create conditions that prevent Palestinians in Gaza from recovering and surviving.” The ceasefire was agreed last October in a peace plan backed by US President <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/tags/donald-trump/" target="_blank" rel="" title="https://www.thenationalnews.com/tags/donald-trump/">Donald Trump</a>. It was meant to be the beginning of restoring and rebuilding life in Gaza through reconstruction, aid and reversing many of the devastating effects of Israel's two-year war on the enclave. The war was triggered by a <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/2026/08/05/netanyahu-rejects-us-backed-hamas-disarmament-deal/" target="_blank" rel="" title="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/2026/08/05/netanyahu-rejects-us-backed-hamas-disarmament-deal/">Hamas</a>-led assault on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which militants killed nearly 1,200 people and took about 250 as hostages. More than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's military response, which left most of the territory in ruin. The majority of Gaza's residents have been displaced and now live on a narrow area near the enclave's Mediterranean coast. With continuing attacks, and life largely distant from normality, many Gazans have wondered if the <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/2026/07/21/gaza-residents-say-ceasefire-exists-only-on-paper-as-israeli-attacks-continue/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer" title="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/2026/07/21/gaza-residents-say-ceasefire-exists-only-on-paper-as-israeli-attacks-continue/">ceasefire only exists on paper</a>, rather than reality.