I am a doctor in the occupied West Bank. Our hospitals are dying

What Happened

Israel's withholding of Palestinian clearance revenues—tax funds it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and that constitute over 60% of PA revenues—has been ongoing for months, causing an economic collapse that is strangling the West Bank healthcare system. At Dura Hospital, an emergency room and oncology physician reports empty pharmacy shelves, postponed cancer treatments, and cancelled surgeries. Cancer patients are being sent home because essential chemotherapy and targeted therapies are unavailable; one patient’s controllable blood disorder progressed to acute leukaemia after repeated treatment interruptions, and a young patient with a rare malignancy was discharged without access to a required targeted therapy. Routine operations are repeatedly postponed due to cuts in operating days and unpaid staff salaries: a hernia patient’s delayed surgery became a strangulated emergency requiring intestinal resection, and gallbladder patients are arriving in agony but cannot be scheduled. Outpatient clinics across the West Bank are shutting their doors because the PA cannot pay salaries or suppliers, leaving hundreds of patients without care.

Key Actors

Why It Matters

The deliberate fiscal strangulation is dismantling the West Bank’s healthcare infrastructure, turning manageable conditions into life-threatening emergencies and deepening the humanitarian crisis under occupation. With clear evidence of treatment interruptions causing disease progression and avoidable harm, the collapse risks further destabilising Palestinian society and eroding what remains of institutional capacity—potentially fuelling unrest and complicating any political resolution.

Watch For

Whether Israel releases the frozen clearance revenues under international or US pressure; emergency aid deliveries or alternative funding streams for PA health services; documented mortality spikes from untreated chronic or acute conditions; healthcare worker strikes or protests; and knock-on effects on West Bank security as public services disintegrate further.