Abdullah M. Abu Shawesh. File.
The Palestinian Authority has called upon the Union government and Indian humanitarian organisations to act “urgently” and help the Palestinian healthcare sector overcome the “state of collapse” it is currently in, following nearly three years of military campaign by Israel.
Citing the ‘Aarogya Maitri’ project of the Government of India, the Ambassador of Palestine, Abdullah M. Abu Shawesh, in a press conference on Friday said the project should be extended to the Palestinian health sector, which is facing a “catastrophic” situation.
“Recently, the Honourable Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi announced the ‘Aarogya Maitri’ project, where he pledged, and I quote his words, “Under this project, India will provide essential medical supplies to any developing country affected by natural disaster or humanitarian crises,” said Mr. Abu Shawesh, seeking help for the Palestinian people in both Gaza Strip and West Bank.
“It is the exact moment to save thousands of innocent lives. If not India and the Indian people, then who? If not now, then when? Every life matters,” said Mr. Abu Shawesh. After years of bombing by the Israeli forces, “the Palestinian healthcare sector is in desperate need of urgent international support, including the immediate provision of life-saving, critically essential medicines and medical supplies worth $100 million”, he said.
Cancer drug supply hit
The Palestinian envoy said the Palestinian Ministry of Health currently needs to provide approximately 520 essential medicines to hospital, but almost 180 of these drugs are “completely unavailable”. “Furthermore, out of 97 medicines specialised for cancer and tumour treatment, 50 are currently at zero stock levels, placing nearly 4,000 cancer patients at immediate risk,” he said. The envoy said that Palestinian hospitals are running short of items such as anaesthetic medicines, surgical sutures, dialysis filters, blood units, surgical equipment, insulin, and even fuel required for running hospital generators.
The envoy said the Israeli military campaign in Gaza had destroyed hundreds of thousands of buildings, with an unknown number of bodies trapped under the rubble that require proper disposal. He further said that the conflict had also exposed the human remains in graveyards of Palestinian territories that require proper handling. The medical emergency is such that Palestinian government hospitals in West Bank had postponed thousands of surgeries, he said. “…more than 11,000 scheduled surgeries have been postponed since the beginning of 2026 due to lack of medicines, supplies and operational capacity,” said Mr. Abu Shawesh.
Published – June 19, 2026 10:15 pm IST
