The Israeli government’s restrictions on medical supplies entering Gaza have led to preventable suffering and death, according to a new study published today by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and the Global Human Rights Clinic (GHRC) at the University of Chicago Law School.
“Throughout this war, Israel’s limits on life-saving medical supplies – such as anesthesia, gauze, sanitation materials, and orthopedic tools – have been deliberate, excessive, unclear, unpredictable, and unjustified,” said Sam Zarifi, JD, LLM, PHR executive director.
PHR and GHRC call on the Israeli government to immediately lift the blockade and facilitate the unrestricted entry of medical supplies to Gaza. Regardless of the illegality and brutality of Hamas’ attack on October 7th and ongoing hostage taking, the Israeli government’s cruel restrictions on basic medications in Gaza are a grave breach of their obligations under international humanitarian law to ensure the protection and facilitation of medical care for the wounded and sick without discrimination during armed conflict.”
The new multimedia publication (“We Could Have Saved So Many More”: Anguish and Death Caused by Israel’s Restrictions on Medical Supplies in Gaza) documents the barriers encountered by health professionals when attempting to bring essential medical supplies and deliver care in Gaza. It is informed by 47 in-depth interviews with international medical professionals who traveled to Gaza to provide medical care between December 2023 and December 2024, in addition to a desk literature review, consultations with humanitarian organizations and health care workers currently in Gaza, and analysis of how Israel’s policy restricting medical equipment compares to global norms.
“Amputations without anesthesia. Surgeries without scalpels. Infections untreated. Treatable injuries transformed into terminal harm. Volunteer medical professionals face systematic Israeli policies and practices that directly prevent them from caring for the wounded and sick in Gaza,” said PHR’s Zarifi. “The sweeping and unpredictable restrictions imposed by Israeli authorities under the guise of ‘dual use’ item limitations have resulted in foreseeable and severe pain to children, women, and men in Gaza who seek medical care.”
“The laws of war were created to ensure civilians – who often face the brunt of the collateral damage of war – have access to essential and lifesaving care,” said Anjli Parrin, JD, assistant clinical professor of law and director of the Global Human Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago. “The failure to ensure adequate medicine goes to the core of what this system is about, and entire system of law is meaningless without respect for these fundamental obligations.”
Key findings in the PHR and GHRC multimedia publication include:
- The severe shortage and restrictions on medical supplies have profoundly compromised the quality of care in Gaza, forcing health care providers to make life-or-death decisions under conditions that fall far below acceptable medical standards and contribute to unnecessary pain, suffering, complications, and loss of lives.
- Health care workers reported the following items as being restricted from entering Gaza: anesthesia, strong pain killers, sanitation materials, scalpel handles, insulin, orthopedic tools (drills, screws, metal plates), suture materials, dressings and gauze, point of care testing for war-related trauma injuries, water purification materials, chest tubes, hormone medications for reproductive health, dialysis supplies, batteries, oxygen cylinders, airway and intubation supplies, tourniquets, clamps, skin staplers, and pulse oximeters.
- Health care providers at times were forced to perform limb amputations instead of standard vascular and orthopedic surgeries due to restrictions on surgical tools, screws, and plates, and shortages in essential supplies such as wide-spectrum antibiotics, sterilization equipment, and wound care materials – a significant departure from internationally accepted standards of care.
- Patients, including children, arrive at health facilities with injuries that under normal circumstances would have been survivable but proved excruciating or fatal due to delays in care or lack of essential resources such as anesthesia, blood products, or sterile surgical equipment.
- Restrictions on medical supplies and the entry of volunteer health care providers have intensified significantly in 2025 amid the worsening blockade.
“Each time I’ve traveled to Gaza to provide medical care since March 2024 the Israeli government’s restrictions on medical supplies have become even more extreme,” said Tammy Abughnaim, MD, a doctor whose experiences are highlighted in the study. “In my March 2025 trip, Israel stopped me from bringing in pain medications, disinfectants, surgical instruments, and baby formula. Inside the hospital, it is hell 24-7. Imagine trying to respond to a mass casualty event or a child shot in the head without basic medical supplies – no tourniquets, no beds, not enough ventilators. Israel has forced Gaza’s heroic health care workers to make impossible decisions.”
The Israeli government claims that restrictions on medical supplies are necessary because of these items’ perceived potential for diversion toward military “dual use” by Hamas. However, Israel’s list of restricted items is not transparently published or clearly communicated but appears overbroad in practice, outside of international standards, and regularly shifting. None of the 47 health professionals or humanitarian organizations interviewed were able to obtain a definitive list of banned items. The items that have been blocked from entering Gaza clearly have a medical end use and should be clearly exempt from restrictions. Furthermore, health professionals reported that confiscation practices were arbitrary and varied depending on the Israeli officer at the border.
The Israeli government has restricted medical supplies while also waging widespread attacks on health care facilities and providers in Gaza. Since the Hamas-led attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023 that killed more than 1,200 Israeli civilians, and the taking of 251 hostages, of whom 23 are still believed to be alive in custody, the Israeli government reprisals have resulted in at least 735 attacks on health care facilities, personnel, and transports in Gaza, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). 57,012 Palestinians have been killed amid Israel’s war on Gaza, including an estimated 17,121 children.
The study features animated video vignettes depicting the accounts of medical professionals who traveled to Gaza but were impeded from providing care due to the supply restrictions. The study also includes direct testimony from the 47 clinicians, such as:
- “We were doing trauma amputations without any anesthesia and we didn’t even have a full scalpel. The scalpel handles were not available. We can only use the tip of the blade… or whatever blade that you’re getting because it’s banned as a dual use. So you just hold the tip of the blade and then splash some betadine on the patients and cut them and they are already in pain.” – A surgeon who worked in Gaza in January 2024
- “I heard her screams before I saw her. I was in the pre-op area when she was wheeled in, a tiny, 7-year old girl, screaming at the top of her lungs. That’s when I saw that she only had half her leg. She was grabbing in desperation at the physician who was standing next to her, and asking over and over again for anesthesia drugs. We rushed her into the operating room, despite knowing that the anesthesiologist does not have anesthesia drugs to give her, and he does not have sedation medicines to get her sedated or control her pain. As this little girl screams and writhes on the stretcher, the anesthesiologist just starts singing softly to her, like a lullaby. He knows that’s all the comfort he can offer her.” – Dr. Mike Mallah, who worked in Gaza in March 2024
- “So this was a very ugly, vicious pattern. If you don’t get killed from being bombed, you would get killed from lack of medical care and lack of wound care. If you don’t get killed from being bombed or lack of wound or medical care, you would die of lack of nutrition because in order for a wound to heal, you need good nutrition, good protein, good hydration, and they didn’t have that.” – A nurse who worked in Gaza in January 2024.
The study notes that Israel is bound by international humanitarian law in its conduct of hostilities in Gaza. Israel is also obligated to ensure the rights of Palestinians in Gaza under international human rights law as it has effective control in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. All parties to an armed conflict, including Israel and Hamas, are obligated to ensure the protection and facilitation of medical care for the wounded and sick, without discrimination. Israel’s deliberate obstruction of aid and the denial of access to essential medical supplies and personnel represent a grave breach of these obligations.
“The escalating catastrophe in Gaza today underscores the urgency of the Israeli government ending its blockade and ensuring that medical professionals – both the heroic local clinicians as well as those who volunteer from abroad – can access the supplies they need. Let health care workers in Gaza save lives,” said Zarifi.
The study issues policy recommendations to the Israeli government, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, the Palestinian Authority, United Nations Member States, and international accountability mechanisms like the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and International Criminal Court. PHR and GHRC call on Israel to end the blockade and implement the orders of the ICJ requiring that Palestinians in Gaza have access to lifesaving aid and essential services.
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is a New York-based advocacy organization that uses science and medicine to prevent mass atrocities and severe human rights violations. Learn more here.