- ‘I travel about 3 kilometers from the tent to the hospital, and we are living a slow death,’ Fathi Haji tells Anadolu
- -‘Kidney patients are facing an escalating crisis due to the shortage of medicines and medical supplies,” says nephrology consultant Raed Musleh
As the sun rises over displacement tents in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, 77-year-old Fathi Haji begins a painful journey to a kidney dialysis center, sitting on a donkey-drawn cart with an oxygen cylinder beside him.
Haji travels around 3 kilometers from his tent in al-Mawasi to Nasser Medical Complex three times a week, as transport remains scarce and medical services continue to deteriorate under Israel’s ongoing genocidal war on Gaza.
“I travel about 3 kilometers from the tent to the hospital, and we are living a slow death,” Haji told Anadolu.
His dialysis session, once four hours long, has been cut to two hours because of shortages of medical supplies, including sodium bicarbonate, a material needed during dialysis to treat blood acidity.
Haji was displaced from the Zeitoun neighborhood in Gaza City due to Israeli bombardment and has since lived in a tent in al-Mawasi. He developed kidney failure in early 2026, forcing him to undergo dialysis three times a week.
“I cannot find an ambulance or any means of transport, so I am forced to ride a cart pulled by an animal under the sun until I reach the dialysis center,” he said.
Gaza’s transport sector has been severely crippled by the destruction of infrastructure and vehicles during the war, fuel shortages and Israeli restrictions on the entry of spare parts, oils and batteries.
A painful journey
Haji’s suffering does not end when he reaches the hospital. He sometimes has to wait until a dialysis machine becomes available or medical teams finish sterilizing it.
“I return to the tent extremely exhausted, and I do not realize what I went through until I rest a little,” he said.
Alongside kidney failure, Haji suffers from high blood pressure, diabetes, gout and breathing problems. He cannot regularly find the medicines he needs in hospitals or pharmacies.
He relies on an oxygen cylinder while moving because electricity cuts make it impossible to operate oxygen devices inside his tent.
Haji appealed to the international community to press for the entry of medicines and dialysis supplies, warning that patients “are dying slowly” as shortages continue.
“We ask for nothing more than treatment and transportation to take us to the hospital,” he said.
“Kidney patients cannot wait,” he added.
Worsening crisis
Raed Musleh, a nephrology consultant at Nasser Medical Complex, said kidney patients face a worsening crisis due to shortages of medicines and essential supplies.
“Kidney patients are facing an escalating crisis due to the shortage of medicines and medical supplies,” Musleh told Anadolu.
“The shortage of sodium bicarbonate forced medical teams at the Noura al-Kaabi dialysis center (in northern Gaza) to reduce dialysis sessions from four hours to two,” he said.
“Reducing dialysis sessions directly affects patients’ health, and we urgently need sodium bicarbonate,” he said.
Musleh said the center serves around 250 patients, including 45 patients a day, despite heavy pressure and shortages of supplies and equipment.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, around 700 dialysis patients in Gaza are at risk due to shortages of supplies, while the shortage of sodium bicarbonate has reduced sessions and disrupted machines in other centers.
Exhausted health system
Musleh also pointed to a shortage of erythropoietin, a medicine that helps kidney failure patients produce red blood cells and reduce anemia.
According to a UN report issued on June 19, 2026, the medicine has been unavailable in Gaza since September 2025, forcing patients to rely on blood transfusions and increasing pressure on already limited blood stocks.
“Repeated blood transfusions have caused some patients to contract viral hepatitis, along with other health complications,” Musleh said.
Small quantities of sodium bicarbonate, dialysis needles and medicines for transplant patients entered Gaza in late July, but the UN said shortages of vital medicines and equipment persist.
The UN says only 44% of health service points that existed before October 2023 were operating by mid-July 2026.
According to the UN Population Fund, 94% of Gaza’s hospitals have been destroyed or are only partially functioning, while more than half of health facilities are unable to provide any services.
Around 350,000 patients with chronic diseases face severe disruption to treatment due to shortages of medicines, tests and specialized equipment, including patients with diabetes, cancer, heart disease, kidney disease and high blood pressure.
The crisis comes as Israel continues daily attacks and restrictions across Gaza despite a ceasefire that took effect on Oct. 10, 2025.
Since the start of its genocide on Oct. 8, 2023, Israel has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians and injured over 174,000 others, while destroying around 90% of the enclave’s civilian infrastructure.
