Palestinian Health Ministry sends cancer drugs to Gaza

The Palestinian Health Ministry on Monday dispatched badly-needed cancer medicine to the blockaded Gaza Strip.

The shipment should be sufficient to last for three months, the ministry said, without providing details on the amount of medicine provided or its cost.

“Medicine is periodically sent to the ministry’s warehouses in the Gaza Strip,” the ministry said in a statement.

“Last month, it sent a shipment of cancer medicine worth some 6 million Israeli shekels [roughly $1.6 million],” it added.

The ministry went on to say that it had no information regarding medicine shortages in Gaza as it has no administrative control over Gaza’s Health Ministry.

On Sunday, Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry suspended all chemotherapy treatments for cancer patients after running out of the necessary medicine.

Israel’s 11-year blockade of the Gaza Strip has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its two million inhabitants of many basic commodities, including medicine and medical equipment.