Gaza patients dying as medical supplies remain low, hospital chief warns

More than 1,000 Palestinians in need of medical treatment have died since the war began due to Israel's ongoing restrictions on essential supplies entering the Gaza Strip, the director of al-Shifa Hospital has said, amid an “already collapsing health system.”

Dr Mohammed Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that since the start of the ceasefire on 11 October, only 10 percent of needed medical supplies have reached the besieged enclave.

He said more than 350,000 patients with chronic health conditions are in urgent need of medication.

Hospitals receive the bodies of patients succumbing to their illnesses as a result of lacking medicine on a daily basis, he warned.

Without treatment, "their fate is death," he added. 

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