The urgent need for blood units is increasing in Gaza due to the rising number of injuries from the ongoing Israeli genocide. And blood donation campaigns are facing unprecedented challenges. The serious health crisis resulting from Israel’s systematic destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system and use of starvation as a weapon of war has created widespread malnutrition among large segments of the population. In turn, this has led to high failure rates in the initial medical examinations of donors.
Medical source reveals the scale of the emergency
According to a Palestinian medical source, 35% of men and 90% of women applying to donate blood did not pass the laboratory tests, due to low haemoglobin levels, which are dangerous indicators that warn of a worsening humanitarian disaster.
The medical source explained that the main reason behind the high number of rejections is the spread of anaemia and severe malnutrition, resulting from the long siege, food scarcity, and the complete economic collapse suffered by families.
He pointed out that the total number of blood units currently being collected barely reaches 100 units per week, while about 50 units were collected per day before the war, stressing that this amount does not cover the needs for more than two days in light of the intensity of daily injuries. As he said:
We are facing great pressure in securing the blood needed for the wounded and sick, prompting us to organise three weekly campaigns in an attempt to fill part of the growing shortage
Health sector on the verge of collapse
This crisis comes in part as a result of Israel’s medelacide in Gaza, with the apartheid state’s attacks leading to an almost complete collapse of the health system. As the World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed, only 17 out of 36 hospitals are still operating in Gaza, most of them almost non-functional or with limited operational capacities due to repeated shelling or lack of fuel, medicines and medical supplies.
The WHO has said Gaza’s “health system is collapsing”, as Israel deliberately blocks the entry of essential supplies such as medicines, food supplements and laboratory supplies. All of this further complicates efforts to rescue injured people and provide primary health care to citizens.
Gaza children threatened with death by thirst and hunger
In the same context, UNICEF has insisted that:
Gaza is facing what would amount to a man-made drought. Water systems are collapsing.
However, because this is man-made, it can be stopped. None of these problems are logistical or technical. They are political.
It also said:
A virtual blockade is in place; humanitarian aid is being sidelined; the daily killing of girls and boys in Gaza does not register; and now a deliberate fuel crisis is severing Palestinians most essential element for survival: water.
And it added:
Just as the water crisis is manmade, so too is the malnutrition it drives.
The drought is a result of Israel’s blockade. Children face death by thirst due to the stoppage of water plants and lack of adequate nutrition. The continued ban on the entry of fuel hinders the pumping of water and the operation of desalination plants, which exacerbates the suffering of the population and contributes to the outbreak of diseases related to malnutrition and immunodeficiency.
Malnutrition prevents Gazans from donating
According to reports by ActionAid, widespread malnutrition in Gaza limits the ability of the population to perform the most basic of humanitarian solidarity roles, such as blood donation, at a time when the need for such donations is increasing due to the large scale of destruction and casualties.
According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) data released in May, meanwhile, nearly half a million people in Gaza are at risk of starvation, while thousands of families suffer from severe deficiencies in iron and essential vitamins, which is directly reflected in blood donation tests.
In light of this tragic humanitarian scene, health teams in Gaza and international relief organisations have called for providing urgent health and food interventions for citizens, especially women and children, allowing the immediate entry of fuel and medical supplies necessary to operate hospitals and blood stations, and launching emergency food support programmes to improve health indicators that allow the continuation of donation campaigns.
What Gaza is witnessing today goes beyond the limits of direct warfare, touching the structure of society from the inside, and undermining the basic tools of resilience of the population. Even blood donation is no longer available to everyone. While medical challenges, logistical breakdowns, and silent starvation multiply, Gazan bodies remain besieged by hunger and anaemia, in a relentless battle for existence.
By Alaa Shamali
This post was originally published on Canary.