GAZA CITY, Palestine

There are 10,000 cancer patients in Gaza without critically needed medicine after their only hospital was forced out of service by the Israeli army in the early days of Israel’s devastating onslaught on Gaza, the head of a hospital in the strip said Monday. 

"After the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital for cancer was forced to go out of service, there are 10,000 cancer patients facing compelling and inhumane circumstances," Dr. Subhi Skaik, the hospital’s director, said in a statement.

He added that now cancer patients in Gaza have no access to cancer medicine.

Skaik urged countries worldwide to help get the hospital running again, calling it the “only resort for cancer patients in Gaza."

Late in October, the Health Ministry in Gaza announced that the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital had to stop offering services after it was severely bombed by the Israeli army.

In 2011-2017, the Turkish government funded construction of the hospital, the only hospital in Gaza for treating cancer, with six floors and an area of 34,800 square meters (about 375,000 square feet), and a capacity of 180 beds.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7, killing at least 21,978 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 57,697 others, according to local health authorities.

Around 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, including the soldiers.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar​​​​​​​