"Access to oxygen is not a medical luxury."

With Israel blocking the entry of spare parts and medical supplies, Gaza's hospital engineers have been forced to salvage parts from damaged machinery just to keep equipment running. At Al-Shifa Hospital — once the largest medical facility in Gaza — engineers have managed to restore only around 15% of the hospital's equipment.

"We now collect equipment damaged during the [Israeli] ground incursion and the bombing of the hospital … dismantle matching equipment of the same type, salvage and repair the parts, and then reassemble the equipment.,” Ahmed Younis, an engineer at Al-Shifa, told Drop Site. “But the equipment is not operating at the level of efficiency it is supposed to.”

As of June 2026, WHO reported that the principal barriers to health facilities being rehabilitated in the Gaza Strip were a lack of medical equipment, affecting 97% of facilities, and shortages of medicines, affecting over 80% of facilities. The Ministry of Health has also issued an urgent warning that Gaza’s few remaining oxygen plants are operating beyond capacity and breaking down.

In parallel with the decimation of Gaza’s health care system, Israel is continuing to severely restrict the number of Palestinians allowed out of Gaza to seek treatment abroad. Some 300 Palestinians have died waiting for medical evacuations since the “ceasefire” went into effect, according to the Health Ministry, with 20,000 patients waiting for authorization and only around 2,000 being allowed to cross so far.
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