Blood patients in the Gaza Strip face a dire health situation due to a severe shortage of laboratory testing supplies and their constant need for blood units and platelets. Many also require travel outside the Strip for bone marrow transplants, while treatment and follow-up opportunities dwindle as the healthcare system deteriorates.
In the Khan Younis area, Al Jazeera correspondent Rami Abu Ta’ima documented the daily suffering of 60-year-old Rasmiya Ismail, who suffers from thalassemia and other illnesses. Her greatest hardship is finding blood donors whenever she experiences a new attack.
Rasmiya explains that when she has an attack, she feels faint and nauseous and is unable to get up on her own. She is then forced to bring donors with her to the hospital, where she stays for two or three days to receive one or two units of blood, depending on her condition.
She adds that her biggest worry is the fear of not being able to find donors each time she needs blood, explaining that she lives each day with the possibility that the day she has an attack might be her last. In medical laboratories, the crisis has worsened due to a severe shortage of testing materials and laboratory supplies. The shortage of some sensitive tests has reached 100%, most notably complete blood counts and major blood gas analyses.
Abdullah Washah, Director General of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital Laboratories, warns that the current quantities of some testing materials are only sufficient for about 10 days to two weeks. He emphasizes that the lack of new supplies could lead to the suspension of essential tests at any moment.
