A young Palestinian patient receives treatment at the dialysis department of a hospital in Gaza City, Sept. 20, 2023. At least 1,100 Palestinian kidney patients are facing an interruption of life-saving treatment due to a lack of medicines and medical equipment in the coastal enclave, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said on Wednesday. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)
GAZA, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- At least 1,100 Palestinian kidney patients are facing an interruption of life-saving treatment due to a lack of medicines and medical equipment in the coastal enclave, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said on Wednesday.
They include 38 children who are in danger of being denied access to dialysis sessions, Ashraf Abu Mahdi, director of the pharmacy department in the Health Ministry, said in a press conference held in Gaza.
"Patients with kidney failure are forced to live in difficult health conditions as medical supplies will be used up soon," Abu Mahdi added.
Abu Mahdi indicated that stores run by the ministry in Gaza are short of related medical supplies, and the hospitals in Gaza provide 13,000 dialysis sessions for patients per month.
He accused Israel of "banning the transport and shipment of medical supplies to the hospitals of the coastal enclave, putting the lives of thousands of kidney patients at risk."
Israel has imposed a tight blockade on the Gaza Strip, home to more than 2 million people, since the Hamas movement seized control of the enclave in 2007, widely blamed by Gazans for their poverty and hardship. ■
A young Palestinian patient receives treatment at the dialysis department of a hospital in Gaza City, Sept. 20, 2023. At least 1,100 Palestinian kidney patients are facing an interruption of life-saving treatment due to a lack of medicines and medical equipment in the coastal enclave, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said on Wednesday. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)
