Gaza Healthcare System

Baggy Shanker Excerpts

Tuesday 24th February 2026 Westminster Hall

[Dr Opher]

The hon. Gentleman is spot on. The most important thing is peace, so that we can build a healthcare system. Although there has been a ceasefire, a lot of Palestinians are still dying. We first need to make a stable environment, and we need to be pragmatic. While there are functioning hospitals in East Jerusalem, we should be able to take people out of Gaza and get them treated there. As I have outlined, the healthcare facilities in Gaza have been severely damaged. I will come later to the possibility of bringing in mobile units on a short-term basis, but in the long term we need to build up the hospital sector.

[Baggy Shanker (Derby South) (Lab/Co-op)]

I thank my hon. Friend for securing the debate. I have read that Gaza is now home to the largest number of child amputees but, according to Save the Children, the prosthetic centres there are not functioning. Does my hon. Friend agree that Israel needs to lift all restrictions on aid getting into Gaza, so that young people can get the vital prosthetic limbs they need for day-to-day life?

[Dr Opher]

I thank my hon. Friend for a point well made. It is even more basic than that: we need to allow medicines into Gaza, which are not currently being transported. Other items such as prosthetic limbs are also very important, so the border needs to open up. Humanitarian aid, not just medical aid, is needed in Gaza. We need to open the borders and allow relief in.

In a sinister development, snipers seem to be targeting specific areas of the body, such as the brachial plexus, damage to which causes long-term disability, and the sciatic nerve in the leg, damage to which causes permanent paralysis. I know that war is evil in many aspects, but we should call out that cynical approach.

Public health is incredibly important for people in the Gaza strip: 89% of water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure has been destroyed or damaged. One of the most important things is to get clean water to people. There are about 250,000 cases of acute malnutrition in children this year, as well as 37,000 cases in pregnant and breastfeeding women.

Violence against women and the effects on reproductive health have led to a 41% fall in births in Gaza, as well as a high number of maternal deaths, miscarriages and newborn mortality. We have seen strikes on maternity wards and the destruction of Gaza’s largest in vitro fertilisation clinic, wiping out 5,000 embryos. Premature births have also sharply increased, with one in five newborns requiring intensive neonatal care. Respiratory infections, acute watery diarrhoea and skin infections are widespread. This is a particularly horrifying statistic: 11 children have reportedly died from hypothermia this winter, including a two-month-old baby and one-year-old child.

There are many serious problems, among which I would like to pinpoint Guillain-Barré syndrome, which is very rare—as a doctor, I have seen it only once—and it leads to increasing paralysis and often requires ventilation. The causes are often difficult to identify, but there seems to be a Guillain-Barré syndrome epidemic in Gaza. It may be triggered by infections or other, possibly sinister, causes. Doctors in Gaza have tried to take away soil samples but have been restricted. I do not know what is causing it but Guillain-Barré is an acute problem with serious repercussions.

On top of all that, we now face an even more alarming development: 37 international non-governmental organisations, including Médecins Sans Frontières, face deregistration on 1 March—next week. If that proceeds, they will no longer be able legally to operate in Gaza, the west bank or East Jerusalem. MSF alone supports one in five hospital beds in Gaza and assists in one in three births. In 2025, it performed 22,000 surgical operations, handled more than 100,000 trauma cases and carried out more than 800,000 out-patient consultations. If these organisations are forced out, the consequences will be catastrophic.

Will my hon. Friend the Minister urge Israeli officials to reopen the humanitarian medical corridor, allowing critically ill patients to travel to East Jerusalem and the west bank for treatment? The World Health Organisation holds a list of approximately 18,000 urgent cases, yet permission to travel that short distance for care—including urgent cancer care—has been routinely denied. Will he use any possible leverage we have to ensure that the Israeli Government immediately pause the deregistration of international humanitarian aid organisations and negotiate their continued presence in Gaza?

As my hon. Friend the Member for Derby South (Baggy Shanker) mentioned, we need to establish a medical supply chain that allows medicine and equipment into Gaza immediately, and we need to find rapid alternatives to destroyed facilities. For example, mobile operating theatres could be in Gaza within 48 hours. They are about the size of articulated lorries and could be driven in, and they are self-maintaining. We could be operating with them almost immediately. We must push to allow them into Gaza. Also, we need to start rebuilding hospitals and build up field hospitals as well. There is a lot to do, but we must start on this process.

Will the Minister work with our allies to ensure that attacks on healthcare are investigated and documented wherever they occur, and that perpetrators are prosecuted? Healthocide must become recognised and exposed and we must deter it in the world. I was refused entry into the west bank last year. I realise that it is very difficult to get any leverage over the Israeli Government to influence their decisions—I respect that—and I understand that the Foreign Office tries to do what it can, but is it time to impose proper, full sanctions on Israel if it does not resolve this itself? I would like to hear the Minister’s opinion on that.

Healthcare workers in Gaza are performing the most difficult and courageous work imaginable, often literally under fire. They deserve protection and their patients deserve care. We cannot simply look away. We need action now.