Patients and internally displaced people are pictured at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on November 10, 2023.  (Photo by AFP)

Gaza City, November 12 (RHC)-- Palestinian health authorities say a number of cancer patients in the Gaza Strip have died due to a lack of the necessary medical supplies to treat them as Israel continues to target hospitals in the northern part of the enclave.

Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical complex in the besieged enclave, is currently under Israeli siege, and reports have emerged that dozens of dead bodies are currently inside the medical facility with nowhere to go.  A spokesman for the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza has said that al-Shifa Hospital doesn't have the capacity or resources to treat the sick or wounded.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has warned that thousands of Gazan patients face a slow death due to the severe lack of medical care.

The Israeli attacks and targeting of hospitals, along with Israel’s cutting off of humanitarian supplies, have put hundreds of cancer and chronic disease patients, pregnant women, and newborn babies at risk of death, the international human rights group warned.

Euro-Med Monitor also drew attention to the grave dangers associated with Gaza’s worsening health service deficit.

Prior to the recent Israeli military campaign in the Strip, the territory was already severely underfunded, and cancer patients in particular faced difficulties in receiving the medical care they required despite their urgent health needs.

The Euro-Med Monitor team has documented the deaths of at least 12 cancer patients in the Gaza Strip, following the closure of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital.

The facility, the only hospital in the strip that specialized in treating cancer patients, shut down nearly a fortnight ago, and other hospitals in Gaza lack the ability to provide such patients with the care that is necessary for their survival.