'I've Been Handed a Death Sentence For Being a Cancer Patient'

Israel’s genocide is destroying the health system in Gaza and the West Bank – leaving Palestinian cancer patients with few to no options for treatment.

By Diana Buttu, reposted from Zeteo, August 11, 2026

Um Mahmoud* considers herself “one of the lucky few.” From Gaza, she was diagnosed with cancer in 2020 after years of experiencing often debilitating back pain. But she happened to be in Ramallah, receiving treatment, when Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza broke out in October 2023.

Nearly three years later, however, Um Mahmoud is facing a different kind of death sentence: While she’s escaped the immediate threat of bombs, gunfire, and healthcare collapse, she’s trapped in the occupied West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority can no longer pay for her treatment owing to Israel’s withholding of tax revenues. So she must wait, without treatment – while the cancer ravages her body.

Um Mahmoud’s story is both about one woman who desperately needs cancer treatment – and one about how Israel’s genocide extends far beyond the borders of Gaza.

A Difficult Journey Even Before Oct. 7

Before I get into Um Mahmoud’s story, it is important to describe the situation of cancer treatment in the West Bank and Gaza before 2023.

Cancer remains among the leading causes of death in Palestine. And while its cancer incidence rates are comparable to those of other Arab nations in the region – and significantly lower than in Israel – Palestine has a higher mortality rate compared to most neighboring countries. Why? Because treatment is so difficult to get.

For decades – and well before October 2023 – Israel has isolated and blockaded the Gaza Strip. This isolation has also meant the isolation of its healthcare system. Israel limits or blocks the entry of critical equipment and restricts the exit and entry of medical professionals and specialists. As a result, many types of medical treatment — including cancer treatment — are unavailable in Gaza, requiring Palestinians from the enclave to exit the Strip to seek treatment elsewhere. For example, up until this year, Israel barred radiotherapy equipment from entering hospitals both in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which meant that patients had to apply for permits to go to Jerusalem to get treatment at the Augusta Victoria Hospital. (Radiation equipment was allowed into two West Bank hospitals for the first time this year, one Palestinian doctor tells me). Even then, advanced procedures and bone marrow transplants must seek referrals to neighboring countries – at their own expense or at the expense of the Palestinian Authority.

Gaza’s hospitals face particular challenges in treating cancer patients because Israel refuses to allow sufficient supplies of medicines and essential medical equipment. As a result, certain specialized surgeries are simply unavailable. For years, many key chemotherapy drugs remained at less than one month’s supply, including the medication that Um Mahmoud needed. Instead, she needed to be transferred to Egypt or the West Bank – the only two places that could take her. In her case, the West Bank was the preferred place, due to it being only 50 kilometers (about 31 miles or technically a 40-minute drive) from Gaza.

But getting out of Gaza is not a simple matter. As part of its policy to separate the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Israel only allows a very limited number of Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip – limited to cases that Israel has defined as “humanitarian and exceptional.” But even that is no guarantee of a permit. Requests could only be submitted for the purpose of seeking life-saving treatment, or treatment without which the quality of life would be drastically affected, and only on the condition that the treatment was not available in Gaza and that there was no specific security prohibition on the individual.

Submitting a request for a medical permit is like navigating a maze, requiring a series of permits, approvals, and financial guarantees that can take months. In practice, many requests are refused without reason or go unanswered entirely, and some were refused on “security grounds.” Patients (including children) are often left exiting Gaza alone as those accompanying them (including parents) are denied permits. Even once patients receive all necessary approvals, they are required to undergo screening at the Erez crossing, which includes searches and sometimes interrogations and arrests. For patients referred to hospitals in the West Bank, the journey also entails crossing additional Israeli checkpoints, adding to the ordeal. The World Health Organization noted in 2022 that for regular cases, the time to obtain a permit ranges between 33 and 121 days.

Owing to her condition, Um Mahmoud managed to get a permit. Her permit involves her getting treatment and then returning to the Gaza Strip, immediately after her treatment. Staying beyond that would be too humane for Israel. Bringing the treatment to Gaza would be too humane for Israel. So instead, Um Mahmoud made the journey every few weeks, going through Erez, checkpoints, body searches and so on.

In October 2023, she had another referral and traveled once again from Gaza to the West Bank for treatment. A few days later, Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza erupted. She has not been home since then. Actually, she doesn’t have a home to go back to: Israel bombed her house in 2024. She shows me pictures of how her beautiful home looked before Israel reduced it to a pile of rubble. She is one of dozens of patients trapped in the West Bank – unable to leave to return to Gaza.

Handed a Death Sentence

In the West Bank, Um Mahmoud was receiving her treatment, living in a small hotel room turned apartment where she and the other patients from Gaza once lived. After months, the PA could not pay the hotel bill, and patients were left fending for themselves. She has since moved out of the hotel and now lives in a modest apartment that she cannot afford. And with Israel’s continued (and illegal) refusal to hand over Palestinian tax revenues, the Palestinian Authority is no longer able to pay for her treatment.

Tax revenues make up roughly 70% of the Palestinian Authority’s operating budget, and it is with this money that the Palestinian Authority pays for hospitals, clinics, medication, as well as the salaries of public employees, including doctors. Conservative estimates are that Israel has stolen more than $5 billion from the Palestinian Authority as punishment for the Palestinian Authority’s appeal to the world to intervene to stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza. As a result, for years, public sector employees have not received their full salaries. Public hospitals and clinics are either closed or operating at limited capacity. And the Palestinian Ministry of Health is now running out of medicines and medical supplies, putting the lives of thousands – including more than 4,000 cancer patients – at risk. Hospitals have run out of 265 specialized medical supplies, while the Ministry of Health’s warehouses have completely run out of 726 types of medication, including 50 out of 97 medications used to treat cancer.

A few Palestinians from the West Bank have managed to go to Jordan or elsewhere to seek treatment – if they can manage the trip and the funds. But for others, like Um Mahmoud, travel abroad is simply not an option – whether for financial reasons or because they are barred from leaving the West Bank.

At one point, Um Mahmoud was given enough medication for half a month, only for the medication not to be available. She has gone more than five months with the treatment being available only intermittently. She cannot afford the drugs on her own. She also cannot afford all of the incidental medications, which can amount to thousands of dollars every month. Between looking for sources of support for her medication and rent, Um Mahmoud is struggling to survive. The cancer, she tells me, is now the easy part.

She has tried to seek referrals outside of Palestine, only to be rejected because of her Gaza ID card. Those Palestinians from Gaza need special Israeli-issued permits to be able to travel through the Jordan crossing point, and such permits are not forthcoming.

And because she is from Gaza, she cannot travel anywhere outside of the town in which she resides, as her permit is only for this one locale. So, she waits. She waits to see whether the PA can cover her treatment again; for Gaza to open so she can return to be with her family; for mercy.

“I have been handed a death sentence,” she says, “and my crime is being a cancer patient from Gaza.”

*Zeteo changed the name of Um Mahmoud to protect her identity.

Diana Buttu is a Haifa-based lawyer and analyst who was a legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team in the early 2000s and is a frequent commentator and writer on Palestinian and Israeli issues. She is also a practitioner in residence at Georgetown University in Qatar. She writes Zeteo’s ‘A Diary from a Palestinian in Israel.’

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