Gaza, December 16 (QNA) - A human rights report revealed that the Israeli occupation's aggression on the Gaza Strip has put patients with chronic diseases at risk of death due to poor health services on the one hand, and the depletion of medicines on the other hand, in addition to food shortages and their inability to afford the cost of purchasing what food may be available, especially in light of widespread poverty and the repeated forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of them.

The report issued by the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights in Palestine said that patients with chronic diseases need to have appropriate medicines and treatments available on a permanent basis, and their delay in taking the medicine leads to the deterioration of their health conditions and exposes their lives to the risk of death.

The report noted that many patients have stopped taking their medicines regularly, while some have stopped taking the medicine due to its unavailability in pharmacies or centers affiliated with the Palestinian Ministry of Health and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

The number of people suffering from chronic diseases in the Gaza Strip is about 350 thousand patients, all of whom were deprived of receiving the necessary health care due to the genocidal war, as the occupation forces destroyed 10 drug warehouses belonging to the Ministry of Health.

It said that the occupation forces prevented the entry of any medicines or medical supplies from the beginning of the war in October 2023 until February 2024, then allowed some Palestinian medical companies to bring in certain types of medicines, including medicines for chronic diseases, until May 2024.

The quantities that entered do not exceed 10 percent of the actual need for the sector, and no medicines for chronic diseases have entered since that time.

The deficit rate in primary care medicines for chronic diseases reached 80 percent, and the zero balance reached 64 percent of medical supplies for chronic diseases.

Al Mezan Center confirmed that medical services for chronic diseases in the Gaza Strip were affected during the war of extermination, as a result of many hospitals and specialized departments going out of service, and the loss of many types of medicines and medical supplies due to the burning and destruction of central warehouses and the obstruction of the arrival of medicines and food, and the killing, arrest and travel of a number of specialist doctors.

Al Mezan Center for Human Rights called on the international community and its active institutions to pressure and protect the lives of patients, especially those with chronic diseases, and to protect hospitals, health facilities and medical staff, calling for the urgent passage of all shipments of medicines, supplies and medical supplies, and facilitating their access and movement between the south and north of the Gaza Strip and vice versa, especially medicines for chronic diseases, in quantities that cover the actual need of the Strip. (QNA)