Israeli rights group warns West Bank healthcare system nearing collapse amid funding crisis

An Israeli rights group, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, warns that the West Bank healthcare system is nearing collapse. Israel has withheld at least $2.5 billion in tax revenues from the Palestinian Authority since 2023, leaving the Ministry of Health $1.18 billion in debt. Consequently, 75% of public clinics have cut operations to one or two days a week, essential medicines are depleted, and unpaid doctors are striking. Compounding the crisis, severe Israeli military checkpoint restrictions are blocking patient access and delaying ambulances, resulting in preventable deaths.

West Bank healthcare collapse

• ▪The average daily attendance at Physicians for Human Rights Israel's mobile clinics has doubled over the last two years, rising from approximately 250 to around 500 patients.
• ▪Physicians for Human Rights Israel released a position paper warning that the Palestinian public healthcare system in the occupied West Bank is nearing collapse due to Israeli policies.
• ▪The UK-based charity Medical Aid for Palestinians corroborated the findings of Physicians for Human Rights Israel, warning of a systemic dismantling of West Bank healthcare access.

Palestinian tax revenue withholding

• ▪In June 2026, Israel expanded its deduction mechanism to allow deductions to exceed 100 percent of certain Palestinian Authority payments, replacing the previous one-to-one formula.
• ▪As of June 2026, Israel had cumulatively withheld at least $2.5 billion in tax and customs revenues from the Palestinian Authority since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in 2023.
• ▪According to the World Bank, Israel's monthly deductions from Palestinian clearance revenues rose from approximately $66 million to roughly $165 million after October 2023.
• ▪Israel's withholding of Palestinian Authority clearance revenues, collected under the 1994 Paris Protocol, has severely undermined the authority's ability to fund public healthcare services.

Medicine shortages

• ▪Out of approximately 1,260 essential medicines normally stocked by the Palestinian Ministry of Health, 160 are completely out of stock and 600 have only a few days of supply remaining.
• ▪UNRWA's West Bank director, Roland Friedrich, stated that the agency faces a marked increase in patients but lacks funds and faces Israeli restrictions on importing medications.
• ▪The Palestinian Ministry of Health faces a debt burden of over $1.18 billion owed to private hospitals and pharmaceutical suppliers due to the ongoing fiscal crisis.

Healthcare service reductions

• ▪Only 63 percent of Palestinian primary healthcare centers remained partially operational in 2025, with many opening just one day a week compared to six days before October 7, 2023.
• ▪Approximately 75 percent of the Palestinian Ministry of Health's service branches, representing 447 out of 590 clinics, have been forced to reduce operations to just one or two days a week.
• ▪Doctors Without Borders halved its mobile clinics in the South Hebron Hills from 12 to six after Israel revoked the licenses of over three dozen humanitarian organizations.

Israeli military checkpoint restrictions

• ▪Israeli military checkpoints, roadblocks, and raids in the West Bank are severely delaying medical transport, preventing patients from reaching hospitals, and obstructing emergency response teams.
• ▪In July 2026, closed Israeli checkpoints forced at least two Palestinian women to give birth in ambulances, resulting in one baby being delivered stillborn near Nablus.
• ▪The Israeli military denied systematically preventing medical treatment, stating that the ambulance carrying the stillborn infant near Nablus had not completed required coordination prior to arrival.

Healthcare worker salary crisis

• ▪Palestinian healthcare workers are receiving only partial salaries after long delays, leading doctors to launch an open-ended strike on May 9, 2026, that limited services to emergency care.
• ▪Palestinian Health Minister Majed Abu Ramadan stated that unpaid healthcare staff are failing to report to work, creating a backlog of medical cases and delaying routine surgeries.