The Palestinian Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip warned that the medicine shortage threatens the lives of more than 9,000 cancer patients in the besieged enclave. 

The Director General of Turkish Friendship Hospital and Gaza Cancer Center Dr. Sobhi Skik told a press conference hosted by the ministry that "Cancer patients suffer from a lack of diagnostic and treatment capabilities, with the increasing number of cases of cancer patients among the residents of the Strip."

Skaik added, "There are currently more than 9,000 cancer patients in the Gaza Strip," pointing out that the incidence of cancer is 93.1% among every 100,000 citizens, while this rate was 60% in 2000.

He stated that the statistics of the World Health Organization talk about an increase in the current rate of tumors, which amounts to 93.1% among every 100,000 citizens, to double in the year 2040, pointing to the high death rate among cancer patients to 12.5%.

Skaik stressed that cancer patients suffer from a severe shortage of medicine, the lack of radiotherapy, the lack of nuclear medicine capabilities to diagnose cancer patients, and the lack of some important analyzes to diagnose it. .

Skaik called on the free people of the world and the concerned parties to intervene urgently to save the lives of cancer patients in the Gaza Strip.

In turn, the Director General of Pharmacy at the Ministry of Health, Ashraf Abu Mahadi, explained during the conference that 45% of the medicines needed for oncology patients were not available during the past 6 months, which led to the patients not receiving the necessary treatment protocol for them.

Abu Mahadi emphasized the importance of therapeutic medicines provided to patients, especially cancer patients, stressing that the lack of medicine negatively affects the provision of service to patients.

And he indicated that oncology patients follow an integrated treatment regimen of several medications that complement each other, and when one of them is missing, the required treatment for the patient is not complete, indicating that more than half of the patients did not receive the integrated treatment service.

Abu Mahadi stated that the health system in the Gaza Strip is under great stress in light of the unavailability of medicines and the patients' continuous efforts to obtain the missing treatment, without finding any suitable solution.

He called on all institutions, companies and donors to provide the necessary and adequate treatment protocol for oncology patients, in particular, in order to prevent the worsening of the patients' health condition and a relapse for them.

For his part, the spokesman for the Ministry of Health, Ashraf al-Qidra, said during the conference, "More than 40% of the medical referrals granted to cancer patients are rejected by the occupation, which doubles the patients' pain and causes the death of a number of them."

Al-Qudra pointed out that the occupation’s continuous siege on the Strip for the 17th year in a row aims to undermine the health and humanitarian services system in the Gaza Strip, which caused the death of patients due to the lack of medicines and the unjust siege measures that the occupation is carrying out against patients and the Palestinian people.