Gaza Breast Cancer Patients Dying as Siege Blocks Care
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- Esad Darwish, 42, delayed seeing a doctor after noticing breast cancer signs in early July because the mammography machine at Yafa Medical Hospital in Deir el-Balah was unavailable, telling Al Jazeera that caring for her family consumed her days.
- Dr. Hala al-Buhaisi at Yafa Hospital reports a 40 percent or higher increase in advanced-stage cancer cases since the war began, with more than 4,000 women still waiting to travel outside Gaza for treatment and a documented 5 percent mortality rate tied to travel delays.
- The World Health Organization estimates around 10,000 cancer cases in Gaza, with more than 2,000 new diagnoses annually; breast cancer is among the most common cancers affecting women in the territory.
- Marah Ghabayen, a 28-year-old mother of a four-year-old, was diagnosed with stage-two breast cancer, was treated with expired medication while awaiting a referral, and died of two cardiac arrests on her way out of Gaza at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis.
- Dr. Omar al-Za'anin, an oncology physician, said mammography can detect small tumors before clinical symptoms appear and early detection can yield survival rates above 95 percent, but the Yafa Hospital device is frequently "out of action" with spare parts hard to find.
- Radiotherapy shortages and a scarcity of oncology medications are slowing patient recovery, according to Dr. al-Buhaisi, who said women also lack psychological support amid the war's turmoil, compounding delays already tied to domestic survival tasks like fetching water.
Why it matters: For Gaza's roughly 10,000 cancer patients, the siege has converted a treatable disease into a death sentence: a 40 percent surge in advanced-stage diagnoses and expired medications show that women are dying not from bombardment but from bureaucratic denial of exit and broken equipment. Marah Ghabayen's cardiac arrest on the way out of Gaza, after treatment with expired drugs, illustrates how a 5 percent travel-delay mortality compounds into a generational wound — her four-year-old daughter Esraa is left asking when her mother will return.
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