AhlulBayt News Agency: Munir Al-Bursh, Director-General of Gaza’s Ministry of Health, stated on Wednesday that Israeli occupation authorities are permitting the entry of entertainment goods into the Strip while continuing to block vital medicines and medical supplies from hospitals still suffering the aftermath of the war of genocide.
A video widely shared on social media showed a man in Gaza displaying a gold-plated iPhone 17, sparking controversy. Shortly afterward, images appeared of displaced families’ tents flooded by heavy rain during a winter storm, underscoring the stark humanitarian contradictions.
Commentators noted that the video was filmed in Gaza and seemed to show a merchant who managed to import the rare device despite its limited global availability.
Al-Bursh told Anadolu Agency that the occupation authorities are “flooding Gaza with secondary goods, entertainment items, and the latest phones,” while “blocking the crossings to medicines, IV fluids, antibiotics, dialysis equipment, and surgical supplies.”
He added that this situation “gives the siege a deceptive commercial facade,” while hospitals function with almost no capacity, operating rooms lack equipment, and medicines are rationed under severe shortages of fuel and communication.
Al-Bursh confirmed that Gaza’s health system “is functioning under conditions unlike any healthcare system in the world, essentially a daily survival zone.”
According to post-ceasefire data from the Ministry of Health, there is a 54% shortage of essential medicines, with emergency drug stocks at zero for 40% of items. Medical supplies face zero-stock shortages at 71%, the highest since Gaza’s health system was established.
Additionally, 82% of children under one year suffer from anemia, and 18,100 patients require travel for treatment, though “their lives depend on political decisions.” One thousand patients have died despite holding travel permits, and about 6,000 have undergone amputations without rehabilitation programs.
This comes amid the near-total collapse of Gaza’s healthcare capacity, after Israeli forces targeted hospitals and medical infrastructure during the war, leaving most facilities out of service, according to Palestinian and UN sources.
The UN estimates that rebuilding Gaza will cost around $70 billion, following two years of genocidal war that killed more than 69,000 Palestinians and injured about 171,000.
Bloggers observed that the occupation recently allowed gold-plated iPhones into Gaza to project a false image of prosperity, while in reality people live in flooded camps without milk, eggs, meat, or basic medicine.
Activists urged exposing this “media deception,” stressing that luxury goods are entering while thousands of patients lack treatment and even tents to shield them from winter cold.
Others argued that the occupation is “engineering the economic and living scene” with “war profiteers.” Commenters concluded that the video was produced for a specific purpose, as everything filmed in Gaza is reframed outside its true meaning, while the war continues as part of a “war of ideas.”
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