75% of West Bank Health Facilities Cut as System Nears Collapse

For healthcare professionals and global health policymakers, the West Bank crisis is not just a geopolitical tragedy—it is a stark case study in how rapidly health systems can unravel when financing is weaponized. With 75% of government facilities reduced to skeleton operations and health workers going unpaid, the situation threatens to erase decades of public health gains and spill over into regional instability. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for designing resilient health systems worldwide.

Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) has issued a stark warning that Israeli policies in the occupied West Bank have pushed the territory’s healthcare system to the brink of total collapse. In a report released on August 6, 2026, the rights group details how a combination of financial strangulation and physical barriers has decimated the Palestinian Authority’s ability to deliver even basic medical services. The consequences are already visible: 75% of government hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies are now operating at severely reduced capacity, functioning only once or twice a week, leaving millions of Palestinians without reliable access to care. This crisis is not accidental but the direct result of systemic measures that have choked the health infrastructure over the nearly three years since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in October 2023.

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With 75% of government facilities reduced to skeleton operations and health workers going unpaid, the situation threatens to erase decades of public health gains and spill over into regional instability.

The central driver of this collapse is financial. Under the Oslo Accords, Israel collects tax and customs revenues on goods entering the West Bank through Israeli ports—funds that are supposed to be transferred monthly to the Palestinian Authority. But since the war began, Israel has withheld billions of dollars of these clearance revenues. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich cut the transfers entirely last year, accusing the PA of supporting terrorism. The PA, unable to meet its payroll or purchase supplies, has seen the health sector crumble: health workers are going unpaid for months, and pharmacies run out of essential medications like those for heart disease and hypertension. The PHRI report underscores that this fiscal weaponization places the entire burden on an impoverished population that cannot afford private alternatives, as illustrated by 70-year-old Bassam Musleh, who spent six months searching high and low for his blood pressure and heart medications before a mobile clinic finally provided them.

Compounding the financial blockade are intensified Israeli military operations and a surge in new checkpoints across the West Bank. These physical impediments delay or prevent patients from reaching the few functioning healthcare facilities, turning treatable conditions into life-threatening emergencies. Ambulances are held up, and medical staff face immense difficulty commuting to workplaces. PHRI’s director of the Occupied Palestinian Territory Department, Milena Ansari, captured the human toll: “If this continues, it is patients — not institutions — who will pay the price.” The report notes that the healthcare system’s degradation is not a byproduct but a predictable outcome of policies that undermine the authority and capacity of the PA.