For six months, 70-year-old Bassam Musleh searched for a pharmacy or clinic to fill his prescription for blood pressure and other heart medications. He stated that public dispensaries were out of stock, and he could not afford private options.
However, when he arrived Tuesday at a mobile clinic in the West Bank village of Iktaba with his tattered prescription, a local aid group finally provided him with the necessary medication.
Musleh, who has a pacemaker, is one of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians facing difficulties accessing healthcare in the West Bank. This situation is highlighted by a report released Thursday by Physicians for Human Rights Israel, which warns that Israeli policies have pushed the territory’s health system to the brink of collapse.
Since the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza began nearly three years ago, Israel has withheld billions of dollars in tax and customs revenues collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA), the body administering parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Without these funds, the PA has struggled to pay health workers, purchase medications, and support public hospitals, pharmacies, and clinics; 75% of these facilities have reduced operations and function only once or twice a week.
Furthermore, Israeli military raids and an increase in new checkpoints are impeding Palestinians' ability to receive adequate medical care, leading to life-threatening consequences.
“If this continues, it is patients — not institutions — who will pay the price,” stated Milena Ansari, director of PHRI’s Occupied Palestinian Territory Department, who authored the report.
Israel has withheld at least $2.5 billion in West Bank revenues
Because Palestinians do not control their own borders, the PA depends on Israel to collect taxes on goods entering the West Bank through Israeli ports. However, rights groups have accused Israel for decades of weaponizing these funds as a tool for political pressure.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich ceased sending monthly clearance revenues to the PA last year. According to the International Crisis Group, Israel has cumulatively withheld at least $2.5 billion from the PA since 2023.
Smotrich’s office and the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not respond to repeated comment requests from The Associated Press.
In an interview with the AP, Palestinian Health Minister Majed Abu Ramadan reported that unpaid staff are absent from work, resulting in a backlog of cases and delays in routine surgeries. Earlier this year, Palestinian doctors went on strike, causing some primary healthcare centers to close.
Health officials noted that those most affected include individuals with cancer, kidney and heart problems, older people, and displaced persons.
At PHRI’s mobile clinic in Iktaba, hundreds of people sought treatment.
Mohammed Sarris mentioned that it has been weeks since he received the eye drops needed for irritation caused by his diabetes. The 64-year-old has relied on the mobile clinic since being forced from his home last year in the Nur Shams refugee camp, where he previously had easier access to healthcare provided by UNRWA, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees.
As a retired government worker, he earns a small pension, often rationing medicine so he can afford food. “It’s degrading. ... All of this has affected us a lot,” he said.
The UN and other aid agencies report increased patient numbers at their clinics
Physicians for Human Rights Israel stated that the number of patients at its mobile clinics has doubled in the past two years, rising from about 250 per day to around 500.
Roland Friedrich, UNRWA’s West Bank director, reported a marked increase in patients at its health centers across the territory. He noted that while the agency is attempting to bridge the gap, it lacks funds to expand health services and faces Israeli restrictions on importing medications.
Earlier this year, Israel revoked the licenses of over three dozen humanitarian organizations, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF). Last year, MSF operated 12 mobile clinics in the South Hebron Hills. However, because they could no longer coordinate movements with the Israeli military, the group halved its clinic operations, impacting more than 40,000 people, according to Joan Tubau, head of mission for Doctors Without Borders in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
More checkpoints restrict Palestinian access to care
The shortage of medicine, staff shortages, and reduced services are worsened by harsher Israeli restrictions on freedom of movement in the West Bank. In recent years, the military has erected new barriers, checkpoints, and roadblocks, sometimes without warning, closing off towns and cities.
Aseel Baidoun, deputy director of advocacy and campaigns for Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), an international organization, stated that in July, at least two women gave birth in ambulances because checkpoints were closed; one baby was stillborn. She added that three others died trying to reach hospitals this year: two more infants and a 30-year-old woman who suffered a heart attack after an ambulance was stopped at a checkpoint near Sinjil, outside Ramallah.
The Israeli military has denied preventing medical treatment for civilians, stating there is no intention to delay treatment or medical evacuations. Regarding the stillborn infant delivered in an ambulance near Nablus, the army stated the emergency vehicle had not completed "required coordination" before reaching the checkpoint and that the military conducted a security check lasting only a few minutes.
Dr. Leen Ibrahim, who works with MAP, said one consequence of this crisis is the impact on mental health. “People here feel suffocated by everything they’re going through,” she commented. At the clinic Tuesday, some Palestinians broke down while waiting hours to be seen. Asala Wawi, 65, wiped tears from her face while getting her eyes checked and said, “The line is so long... I’m tired.”
Associated Press journalists Jalal Bwaitel in Ramallah, West Bank, and Koral Saeed in Herzliya, Israel, contributed.