New Delhi: The Embassy of Palestine to India has issued an urgent appeal for immediate international and Indian intervention for medical aid, asserting that the healthcare sector in the territory has reached a breaking point and is on the "verge of total collapse".
"The Embassy of the State of Palestine to the Republic of India expresses its profound concern over the catastrophic collapse of the healthcare sector in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as a direct result of the ongoing Israeli genocidal war, military attacks, mass destruction of medical infrastructure, severe restrictions on humanitarian access and financial strangulation measures," the embassy said in an official statement on Friday.
"It is the exact moment to save thousands of innocent lives. If not India and the Indian people; then who? If not now; then when? Every life matters," the statement said.
"The Palestinian people continue to look toward the conscience of humanity and toward India's historic commitment to justice, humanitarian values, anti-colonial principles, and support for oppressed peoples," it added.
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The Embassy further called on India to provide medical aid under the "Aarogya Maitri" humanitarian initiative, which extends India's commitment to global health and disaster relief.
"Recently, the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India, H.E. Narendra Modi, announced the "Aarogya Maitri" project, where he pledged, and I quote his words: "Under this project, India will provide essential medical supplies to any developing country affected by natural disasters or humanitarian crises." End quote," the statement read.
The Embassy detailed what it described as a "humanitarian catastrophe of unprecedented scale, citing World Health Organization (WHO) data. According to the embassy, only 19 out of 36 hospitals in the territory remain "partially operational", while also underscoring the devastating condition of the hospitals in Gaza, along with a "critical shortage" of medicines, equipment, dialysis supplies, blood units, and fuel to run hospital generators.
"On the 986th day of the ongoing Israeli genocidal war, the healthcare system in the Gaza Strip has reached an unprecedented level of devastation. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), only 19 out of 36 hospitals remain partially operational under extremely limited emergency conditions. The World Health Organization has warned that Gaza's health system has reached a breaking point," the statement noted.
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The Embassy highlighted the urgent need for the medical evacuation of thousands of patients, amid the deteriorating treatment facilities.
"International humanitarian organizations have further reported critical shortages of anaesthesia, antibiotics, dialysis supplies, blood units, surgical equipment, insulin, and fuel required to operate hospital generators. The ongoing Israeli military genocidal war has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, casualties, and injuries, overwhelming the remaining healthcare facilities, while thousands of patients continue to remain in urgent need of medical evacuation outside the Gaza Strip," it added.
The Embassy highlighted that the spread of skin diseases, rodent-related infections, and the presence of thousands of bodies trapped under rubble have created conditions that threaten the most vulnerable, particularly children and those with compromised immune systems.
Citing the data of WHO, UN, UNRWA, and other humanitarian organisations, the embassy said that it is estimated that 12,000 bodies are trapped under the rubble. Moreover, the embassy said that the sanitation system has "collapsed", with a shortage of clean water, waste accumulation, and rapid spread of diseases adding to the "catastrophic" living conditions in Gaza.
"These conditions have also led to the increased presence of rats, snakes, and mosquitoes and triggered the rapid spread of severe skin diseases and dangerous infestations, including lice, fleas, bedbugs, and rodent-related infections, creating an environment highly vulnerable to epidemics and infectious diseases," the embassy's statement read.
According to the Embassy, these conditions also pose a grave threat to children and patients with weakened immune systems, flagging that nearly all children in Gaza are now in need of mental health and psychosocial support, while thousands face acute malnutrition.
"International reports further warn that these conditions pose a grave threat, particularly to children, the elderly, and patients suffering from weakened immune systems. The crisis has severely worsened food security, child health, and maternal care in Gaza. Thousands of children are suffering from acute malnutrition. International reports further indicate that nearly all children in Gaza now require mental health and psychosocial support," it said.
Furthermore, the Embassy said that the crisis extends into the West Bank and East Jerusalem, saying that financial constraints, exacerbated by the withholding of tax revenues, have severely limited the Ministry of Health's ability to provide services to the needy public.
"At the same time, the Occupied West Bank is facing an escalating healthcare crisis as a result of severe Israeli financial strangulation measures, including the continued withholding of Palestinian tax revenues. These policies have caused an unprecedented shortage in public funding, particularly affecting the Palestinian healthcare sector, upon which the vast majority of Palestinians depend as beneficiaries of public medical services," the statement read.
"In an attempt to address the growing humanitarian emergency, the Palestinian Government has provided tens of thousands of free health insurance policies to families who lost their sources of income during the ongoing Israeli genocidal war. This has placed enormous additional pressure on public hospitals and healthcare institutions already suffering from severe financial and logistical constraints," it added.
The Embassy revealed that the number of surgeries performed in government hospitals has plummeted, with over 11,000 procedures postponed this year alone due to critical shortages in medicines and operational capacity.
"The scale of the crisis is alarming. During the previous year, Palestinian governmental hospitals in the West Bank performed approximately 65,000 surgeries. However, during the current year, only around 19,500 surgeries have been carried out, while more than 11,000 scheduled surgeries have been postponed since the beginning of 2026 due to shortages in medicines, supplies, and operational capacity," the statement read.
The Embassy further affirmed that the Palestinian Ministry of Health is witnessing a serious crisis of essential medicines, many of them required for specialised treatments, along with essential surgical equipment, jeopardising the health of thousands of patients.
"The Palestinian Ministry of Health currently seeks to provide approximately 520 essential medicines; however, nearly 180 of these medicines are now completely unavailable. Furthermore, out of 97 medicines specialized for cancer and tumor treatment, 50 are currently at zero stock levels, placing nearly 4,000 cancer patients at immediate risk," the statement read.
"The Ministry's central warehouses are also experiencing severe shortages of specialized medical consumables, including dialysis filters essential for kidney patients, surgical sutures used in delicate operations such as cardiac surgeries, and numerous other life-saving medical supplies. The absence of these critical materials effectively condemns many patients to slow and preventable deaths," it added.
In its urgent appeal, the Palestinian Embassy called upon the international community, and specifically the Government of India, for life-saving medical supplies valued at $100 million.
The statement read, "Today, the Palestinian healthcare sector is in desperate need of urgent international support, including the immediate provision of life-saving, critically essential medicines and medical supplies worth 100 million USD. The Embassy of the State of Palestine calls upon the international community, the Government of India in particular, Indian humanitarian organizations, medical institutions, civil society organizations, and all concerned parties to urgently act to support the Palestinian healthcare sector, ensure the immediate and sustained delivery of humanitarian and medical assistance, and help protect the lives and dignity of Palestinian civilians."
