Gaza Healthcare System

Debbie Abrahams Excerpts

Tuesday 24th February 2026 Westminster Hall

[Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Sir Jeremy. Clinicians have been targeted by arrests, torture and bullets, and 1,700 have been killed. Hospitals, clinics and ambulances have been destroyed by bombs and drones. Medical aid, equipment and pharmaceuticals have been blocked at the border. Patients have been denied healthcare for blasts and bullets, disease, infection, poor sanitation and malnutrition at unimaginable scales. Mental trauma has engulfed every mind. Sexual violence has violated innocent women and girls.

The crisis continues, yet where are we today? The right to healthcare—to life itself—has been destroyed. International humanitarian law has been breached and the International Court of Justice’s ruling has been undermined as daily violations occur, all while the IDF has destroyed every place where someone can heal. Apart from three field hospitals, three primary health centres and six medical points, all functioning health facilities are only partially functioning. As of 30 January, 18 hospitals, 105 primary healthcare centres and 233 medical points remain non-functional in Gaza.

[Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend and I were at a meeting at which we heard from human rights and medical aid experts. I was struck by the figure that on the World Health Organisation wait list 18,500 people from Gaza are awaiting medical treatment. East Jerusalem hospitals have stated that they are able to care for 50 a day, so there is local provision available. Is my hon. Friend as distressed as I am that that is being refused? Perhaps she can elicit some response from the Minister.

[Rachael Maskell]

I absolutely am. I heard that evidence too. That passage for the whole of the Palestinian healthcare system must be opened. Even now, aid cannot enter Gaza. In four days’ time, 37 organisations will lose their registration to operate. The provision of healthcare, but also the whole humanitarian support network, will collapse. Although every step that the Government take is welcome, the response has been woefully inadequate, leaving people in an indescribable health crisis.

I will never forget the clinicians who have taken the time to inform us of the conditions that they work in, the scale of the challenges they face and the clinical choices they make. One clinician described having to make the choice of which child to save as they looked on at the little bodies writhing in pain and distorted by brutality. Yet the provision of healthcare, water, nutrition and sanitation will evaporate this week. If countries do not step up their efforts in the next few hours, disease will be enabled to spread further and faster.

I ask the Minister some questions. What specific demands has he made of the Israeli Government to release all 309 health workers who are being held as hostages and prisoners? Their skills are urgently needed. What specific demands has he made of the Israeli Government to extend the right of all NGOs providing healthcare or preventing ill health through food and sanitation projects to be allowed to continue their work in Gaza despite the registration scheme? When did he last call in the ambassador for Israel in the light of the immediate removal of the NGOs that deliver healthcare and vital humanitarian aid? If she does not extend those licences, why extend her stay in the UK? What has been her response? What sanctions will the UK Government apply to the Israeli Government for ending access to NGO support for humanitarian work in Gaza?

Finally, how has the Minister sought for people suffering in Gaza to move to East Jerusalem and the west bank where clinicians are ready to receive them? Given that it is our manufactured F-35 parts that have inflicted so many of these wounds, what more can the UK Government do to ensure that we provide the healthcare facilities, here and wherever we can, to save these precious lives?