Hundreds of Gaza’s dialysis patients die struggling to get treatment

Twice a week, Mohamed Attiya’s wheelchair rattles over Gaza’s scarred roads so he can visit the machine that is keeping him alive.

The 54-year-old makes the journey from a temporary shelter west of Gaza City to Shifa Hospital in the city’s north. There, he receives dialysis for the kidney failure he was diagnosed with nearly 15 years ago.

But the treatment, limited by the war's destruction and lack of supplies, is not enough to remove all the waste products from his blood.

"It just brings you back from death," the father of six said.

Many others like him have not made it. They are some of Gaza’s quieter deaths from the war, with no explosion, no debris.

But the toll is striking: more than 400 patients, representing around 40 per cent of all dialysis cases in the territory, have died during the 18-month conflict because of a lack of proper treatment, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.

That includes 11 patients who have died since the beginning of March, when Israel sealed the territory's 2 million Pal...
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