The future looks bleak for the more than 1.7 million people who occupy the area in and around the Gaza Strip. Living conditions are declining progressively due to the increasing pressure that they have faced over the years. Apart from the fact that the residents cannot move around freely, have limited access to food and other commodities, it is the lack of medical supplies that is the real problem.
In fact, according to the health authorities that keep track of the area, the shortage of medical supplies is so severe, that it is causing havoc with surgeries and medical procedures that are urgent, for which there is a long waiting list. There is a danger of the medical supplies that are in storage being completely depleted soon, which of course, is endangering the lives of those people in the area that are suffering from such serious disease as cancer, and so forth. In addition, there are many people living in Gaza that are in urgent need of attention for eye, kidney, heart, and nerve problems, but are suffering because of the serious lack of medical supplies.
The Norwegian Government, according to Lancet Magazine, sent two doctors to Gaza in April 2011, on a health mission, to do an investigation as to the dire shortage of medicines in the area. They found that there is an ongoing drug shortage in Gaza in spite of the talks between the Egyptians and the Israelis, regarding the easing of the stringent blockade that has resulted in the many people in the area being isolated since July 2007. They also reported that it is due to the political division between the Hammas in Gaza, and the Fatah of the West Bank, that is hampering co-ordination and communication between the Palestinian health departments, which, in turn, adds to the already severe hardships that the patients of Gaza have to deal with.
Also, according to two Norwegian doctors who followed the delivery of 200 pallets of drug supplies in February 2011, there was still a short supply of basic disposables and drugs, and that the terrible situation is made even worse because of insufficient transport, incineration, and storage facilities.
Health conditions in Gaza have reached a crisis point, with many, many people suffering, and some of them even close to death, because of the medical supply shortage. Just one example is the girl of 18 who suffers from diabetes, and has been for the past five years. Of course, the insulin injections that she has been prescribed are few and far between, which is causing her to suffer even more, and has also resulted in her vision becoming blurred. According to the doctors, she has entered the dangerous level of the illness, and, if something is not done pretty soon to rectify her condition, she runs the risk of suffering a stroke, because of the effect that the diabetes has on her blood.
The bottom line is that the health conditions in Gaza are dismal, to say the least, and the people of the area continue to suffer daily. This situation is becoming steadily worse, and if the world does not give them the assistance they need, it will become calamitous.