Gaza cancer patients face rising death rate amid Israeli curbs, doctors say

Gaza cancer patients are dying at two to three times the pace they did before the war, as Israel blocks many from travelling for treatment after destroying the territory's only specialized cancer hospital, Gaza doctors said.

Israel says the facility sat above a Hamas tunnel.

Why are cancer death rates rising in Gaza?

Doctors attribute the rising deaths mainly to the absence of local cancer treatment and to Israeli border restrictions on medical evacuations. Gaza's specialized cancer hospital was destroyed last year, leaving an estimated 17,000 patients without local access to chemotherapy or other advanced therapy.

Some doctors also point to toxic materials from Israeli explosives as a possible factor in faster-spreading cancer cases.

How has Israel restricted patients from leaving Gaza for treatment?

Few Palestinians can afford to travel abroad for treatment, and those who can face strict Israeli-imposed caps on daily crossings into Egypt. This is despite a 2025 Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal that requires free movement in and out of Gaza.

COGAT, the Israeli military agency controlling access to Gaza, said it coordinates medical evacuations with the World Health Organization, but that departing patients need a valid request from a receiving country and must pass required security screening. The WHO did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

What happened to cancer patient Khuloud Abu Sahmoud?

Khuloud Abu Sahmoud, a 33-year-old Palestinian mother of two with advanced ovarian cancer, has been waiting to leave Gaza for treatment since the ceasefire was struck last October.

In that time, her cancer has spread to her lungs and bones, she said. "Every day my disease progresses, and my condition is tragic. My fingernails have all fallen out, I have none left. I am just waiting to die," she said.

How many patients have left Gaza for treatment since the ceasefire?

COGAT said around 5,800 Gazans needing medical treatment have exited to Egypt since Israel agreed in February to a limited reopening of the Rafah border crossing, largely shut during the war. "Medical evacuations are in no sense restricted by the State of Israel but are wholly dependent on the receiving country's request; without the official request, COGAT cannot coordinate a patient's leave," the agency said.

Palestinian health officials said 11,000 people, including patients, had gone through Rafah since it reopened, fewer than half the number expected under the ceasefire deal. A further 20,000 patients, including 5,000 with cancer, are registered for treatment abroad but not yet permitted to leave, officials said.

Why have Gaza's hospitals struggled to treat cancer patients?

The ceasefire ended major fighting but left Israeli forces in control of more than half of Gaza, since expanded to around two-thirds. Nearly all of Gaza's more than 2 million people live in a Hamas-controlled strip along the coast, mostly in makeshift tents or damaged buildings. Most Gaza hospitals were destroyed or damaged in the war, and those still operational have been stripped of up to 70% of essential medical supplies, including those needed for cancer treatment and diagnostics, doctors said.

Among those killed by Israel during the war were dozens of highly qualified specialists, including cancer experts at the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, which was demolished in a controlled Israeli demolition in March 2025.

How many people have died from lack of cancer treatment in Gaza?

"We have been recording a significant number of deaths, ranging from three to five daily, because patients are not receiving the chemotherapy needed to save their lives," said Mohamed Abu Selmia, head of Al Shifa, Gaza's largest hospital. Sobhi Skaik, a Palestinian surgeon who led the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, said the pre-war death rate was about one to two per day, with some pre-war statistics putting the figure at around 1.7 daily.

There were roughly 11,000 registered cancer patients in Gaza before the war began following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on southern Israel, after which registrations largely stopped, Skaik said. He estimated another 6,000 Gazans have likely developed cancer since. "Some people can be treated if diagnosed in early stages, but they are wandering around the tents sick, unaware, and with no help," he said.