Diabetes patients in Gaza face survival battle amid war shortages
A Palestinian pharmacist handles medicine as medical supplies run critically low, according to the World Health Organization, at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, 8 March 2026
Lina Ghassan Abu Zayed reports in Al Jazeera on 24 June 2026:
In the early hours of another day of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, 20-year-old Hamza al-Ghazali, who lives in the Zeitoun neighborhood south of Gaza City, set out once again in search of an insulin pen.
It was not the first time he had moved between pharmacies and medical centres, looking for a dose. The effort has become a recurring part of his life since the outbreak of war in October 2023 and the tightening Israeli restrictions on the entry of medicines and medical supplies into the Gaza Strip.
Hamza knows that delaying an insulin dose is potentially life-threatening. Type 1 diabetes requires strict daily treatment and continuous monitoring. However, under war and blockade conditions, managing the disease has turned into a daily, high-risk struggle.
Hamza recalls how his health condition was more stable before the war. He used to obtain insulin from pharmacies at prices ranging between 25 and 35 shekels ($8.5 and $12) per pen, sometimes even less. “I started to know all the pharmacies, and they also knew me, because I was always buying insulin pens,” Hamza says.
But this changed drastically with the war and the tightening of restrictions on the entry of medical supplies. The price of a single insulin pen rose to between 75 and 100 shekels ($25 and $34), and, as Hamza needs six to seven pens per month, he was forced to try to extend the use of each pen for as long as possible.
Fight for survival
The suffering of diabetes patients in Gaza extends to restrictions on the entry of medicines through border crossings, measures that have led to a severe shortage of insulin, glucose metres, and test strips.
Hamza notes that this shortage has created an unstable medical reality, where, in some cases, medicines that may have been stored for long periods or in improper conditions appear on the market, raising concerns about reduced effectiveness or uncertain quality due to the lack of alternatives.