21 August 2025
For nearly two years, Israel has intensified its restrictions on the entry of food, water, fuel, electricity and medicine into Gaza. But these restrictions didn’t begin in 2023; they are part of a long-term system of control that has devastating effects on the health and dignity of the population.
Gaza, just 365km², is one of the most densely populated areas of the world, with more than two million Palestinians living there. Around 70% of Gaza’s population are refugees, many of whom were forced or fled from their homes in historic Palestine due to violent attacks by militias during the creation of the state of Israel. For Palestinians, this is known as the Nakba (“catastrophe”), which was the start of seven decades of systematic displacement (within and outside Palestine), discrimination and oppression of the Palestinian people.
Military occupation
In 1967, Israel occupied Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Discriminatory policies and human rights violations that severely undermine Palestinian health and dignity have been central to this occupation. These policies and practices include the routine use of excessive force; restrictions on freedom of movement; the confiscation of land; demolition of homes and infrastructure; arbitrary detention, torture and inhumane treatment; and state-backed settler violence.
Blockade and closure
Since 2007, the occupying Israeli authorities have maintained control in Gaza through full closure and blockade, cutting the land and the people off from the West Bank, and the rest of the world. The blockade disrupts every aspect of life and is recognised internationally as a form of collective punishment, a war crime under international law.
Nothing – and no one – now gets in or out without Israel’s approval. Its impact has been devastating, especially on Gaza’s healthcare system, leaving hospitals without consistent power, training opportunities, essential equipment and medical items, and the ability to refer patients.
Restrictions on movement of people and goods
Israel also imposes a “dual-use list” of items it claims could be used for both civilian and military purposes. But the list is arbitrary and wide-ranging; it includes essential healthcare equipment required to run X-ray machines. Health workers’ safety is compromised by restrictions on entry of communications equipment for ambulances and vital gear like helmets and protective vests.
In response to Israel’s blockade and denial of Palestinian rights, Palestinians began to demonstrate in 2018. In what came to be known as the ‘Great March of Return’, they demanded their right to return to their homes and for Israel’s closure to be lifted. These demonstrations were violently suppressed by Israeli forces and snipers, killing and injuring thousands of demonstrators and health workers, many of whom suffered lifechanging injuries.
Impunity drives further violations
Since Israel’s latest military attacks and tightened siege in Gaza began in October 2023, Palestinians in Gaza have faced atrocities, including genocide, at the hands of the Israeli military. Over the past two years, Israel has deliberately targeted and killed civilians including healthcare workers, journalists and children, and systematically destroyed Gaza’s healthcare system. The Israeli military has used starvation as a weapon of war, killing Palestinians seeking aid at militarised distribution points, and exercising its unlawful siege to prevent food from entering Gaza for months.
The failure of world leaders and governments to bring Israel’s systematic discrimination, atrocities and illegal collective punishment to an end, has given Israeli authorities the greenlight to continue, and intensify, their trampling of international law, Gaza and its people. This cannot continue - there must be accountability, aid must be allowed to flow freely to all who need it, and Israel’s illegal occupation must be brought to an end.