New Delhi: The Palestinian Embassy in India has appealed for US$100 million in emergency medical assistance, warning of a worsening humanitarian and healthcare crisis in Gaza and the West Bank.
In its appeal, the embassy blamed ongoing Israeli military operations, the destruction of healthcare infrastructure, restrictions on humanitarian access and the withholding of Palestinian tax revenues for the collapse of essential medical services. It said the requested assistance would help secure life-saving medicines, surgical equipment, dialysis supplies and fuel needed to keep hospital generators operational.
The embassy also called on India to activate its Aarogya Maitri initiative, under which Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged medical assistance and essential supplies to developing countries facing humanitarian emergencies. Framing the appeal as a moral imperative, the embassy urged India to act swiftly, citing the country's longstanding support for humanitarian principles, justice and anti-colonial values.
According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), only 19 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain partially operational, with most functioning under emergency conditions and severe resource constraints. Critical shortages have been reported in anaesthesia, antibiotics, insulin, surgical tools and blood supplies, while thousands of patients remain in urgent need of medical evacuation for treatments unavailable inside the territory.
The embassy warned that overcrowded displacement camps, collapsing sanitation systems, mounting waste and bodies trapped beneath rubble have heightened the risk of disease outbreaks, particularly among children, older people and those with weakened immune systems.
The health situation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has also deteriorated sharply. The embassy said financial pressures linked to withheld tax revenues have significantly reduced surgical capacity and depleted medicine stocks across government hospitals.
While public hospitals carried out approximately 65,000 surgeries last year, only 19,500 procedures have been performed so far in 2026, with more than 11,000 operations postponed. Nearly 180 of 520 essential medicines are currently unavailable, including 50 of the 97 drugs used in cancer treatment, placing an estimated 4,000 cancer patients at immediate risk.
The embassy said urgent international support is needed to prevent further deterioration of healthcare services and address what it described as a humanitarian catastrophe of unprecedented scale. (Source: News Syndicate)
