The Cradle: ⭕️ Israel pushing West Bank healthcare system to brink of collapse as medicines run out...

⭕️ Israel pushing West Bank healthcare system to brink of collapse as medicines run out and clinics shut down

An investigation by Haaretz published on 31 May warns that the Palestinian health system in the occupied West Bank is nearing collapse amid a deep financial crisis that has left hospitals understaffed, pharmacies depleted, and thousands of patients at risk.

The Palestinian Health Ministry's debt has reached 2.6 billion shekels, nearly matching its entire 2025 budget of 2.89 billion shekels, while doctors, nurses, and other public-sector employees continue to receive only partial salaries. Essential medicines are disappearing from government pharmacies, including treatments for cancer, kidney disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure, forcing many patients to go without care because they cannot afford private alternatives.

According to Haaretz, the crisis is being driven primarily by Israel's continued seizure of Palestinian customs revenues and the ban preventing roughly 170,000 Palestinian workers from returning to jobs inside Israel. Since early May, doctors and nurses in the public sector have been on strike over years of reduced wages, affecting 447 of the West Bank's 590 Health Ministry clinics.

Government hospitals are now largely limited to providing life-saving care, while shortages of medication, disposable medical equipment, maintenance funding, and staff have severely degraded services for pregnant women, infants, disabled children, and schoolchildren.

The report says the Health Ministry owes approximately 1.3 billion shekels to pharmaceutical suppliers and a similar amount to private and nongovernmental hospitals. Of the 1,260 medications regularly purchased by the ministry, only 260 remain in stock, according to Palestinian Health Minister Majed Abu Ramadan.

Pharmaceutical companies say they can no longer continue supplying medicines on credit, while hospitals across the West Bank and East Jerusalem are cutting salaries, delaying procedures, and increasingly requiring patients to cover parts of their treatment costs themselves. Medical professionals interviewed by Haaretz described the system as being "on the verge of collapse," warning of rising mortality rates among chronically ill patients.

Haaretz also points to broader Israeli policies that have worsened the crisis, including efforts to restrict the work of UNRWA, international aid organizations, and Palestinian civil society groups, alongside the expansion of more than 1,000 checkpoints and roadblocks across the West Bank.

These restrictions have complicated ambulance access, delayed urgent medical treatment, increased transportation costs, and isolated vulnerable patients from care. Palestinian Medical Relief Society director Mustafa Barghouti told the newspaper that when all the factors are considered together, the health crisis appears to be the result of a "careful and calculated" process.

Despite emergency interventions and limited European funding, Palestinian officials warn that the aid being provided remains insignificant compared to the scale of the collapse facing the West Bank's healthcare sector.