'Israel' blocks fuel entry, Gaza’s Al-Shifa forced to halt dialysis

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
1 Jul 2025 12:51
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Under total Israeli blockade and bombardment, Gaza’s largest hospital shuts down dialysis services as fuel runs out, leaving hundreds of patients to face death in a collapsing health system.

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Wasem Attiya pushes his father, Mohamed, 54, in a wheelchair as they head to Shifa hospital in Gaza City for a dialysis session, on April 14, 2025. (AP)

Under a total Israeli blockade and relentless bombardment, Gaza’s healthcare system is devastated. This week, the last dialysis machines at Al-Shifa Medical Complex were forced to shut down. With no fuel left to power them, hundreds of patients now face death, not from injury, but from deliberate deprivation.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza confirmed the complete halt of dialysis treatments at the Strip’s largest hospital. Without electricity, without equipment, and without the medicine to sustain life, Gaza’s chronically ill are being left to die in silence.

This collapse is not incidental. It is the result of systematic targeting: hospitals bombed, fuel convoys blocked, aid denied. Al-Shifa Medical Complex, once a symbol of resilience, now stands as a casualty of a war waged not just with weapons, but with sieges.

According to health officials, more than 400 dialysis patients, nearly 40% of Gaza’s dialysis community, have already died since the war began. They were not killed in airstrikes; they were killed by "Israel's" policy, by blockade, by the refusal to allow fuel through the gates.

UNRWA: 'The system is being strangled'

The Ministry of Health has issued a desperate warning that without an urgent delivery of fuel, every patient and wounded person in Gaza’s hospitals may be condemned to a slow and preventable death. That said, the corridors of Al-Shifa are now lined not with the sounds of care but with the silence of abandonment.

The World Health Organization has raised urgent alarms, highlighting the complete exhaustion of kidney medication supplies and an acute shortage of dialysis equipment. Yet the borders remain sealed, the fuel remains blocked, and the machines remain off.

UNRWA has echoed the alarm, describing the total blockade as a form of medical asphyxiation.

'Israel' destroys kidney dialysis center in Gaza, 240 housing units

Last month, Israeli occupation forces destroyed the Noura al-Kaabi dialysis center in northern Gaza. The facility was affiliated with the Indonesian Hospital, located in the northern part of the Strip, which has been repeatedly besieged by Israeli forces who have opened fire on anyone moving within its grounds.

At the time, the Ministry of Health in Gaza stated that the destruction of the dialysis center puts "the health of kidney patients at risk of an unimaginable catastrophe."

The ministry accused the Israeli occupation of pursuing a dangerous strategy aimed at emptying northern Gaza of hospitals and specialized care centers.