The Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Tuesday that elderly people in the Gaza Strip face catastrophic health conditions as a result of the ongoing Israeli blockade and aggression, and the lack of food and medical care, while their counterparts in the West Bank face difficulty accessing healthcare facilities due to Israeli checkpoints.
This came in a statement by the Ministry of Health on the eve of the International Day of Older Persons.
The Ministry said that elderly people in the Gaza Strip face catastrophic health conditions due to food and medicine shortages resulting from the blockade and ongoing Israeli aggression.
It noted that elderly people in the West Bank also suffer from difficulty accessing healthcare facilities in a timely manner due to military checkpoints and arbitrary measures by the occupation, depriving them of their natural right to healthcare.
According to data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics for 2023, the number of elderly people (aged 60 and over) in Palestine reached approximately 321,000, representing approximately 6% of the population of the West Bank and 5% of the population of the Gaza Strip.
The Ministry of Health stated that these estimates are affected by the ongoing aggression and ongoing demographic changes.
