Months After the "Ceasefire",

Insulin Access Still a Problem

The siege has only loosened, and medicines are not getting into Gaza.  The little there is of normal or underground trade does not remotely cover the need.  Aid from international charities is spotty, subject to the whims of the Israeli government.

 

The excuse was always that medicines couldn't come freely into Gaza because of "the Israelis held by Hamas".  Yet all the living people taken by Hamas and other groups were returned by Oct. of 2025.  Still medicine is withheld.

 

Insulin access has been a problem for over two years.  

 

Insulin must be let into Gaza freely. NOW.

 

Newest

 

From a Feb. 16, 2026 article in T1 International entitled:

Voices from Gaza: Rationing Expired Insulin and No Test Strips

 

"All interviewees described weathering famine and severe malnutrition. Each interviewee was forced to eat animal feed and bug-infested flour. Sustained exposure to such horrific conditions in Gaza, combined with the complete breakdown of access to medical care has caused severe physical and psychological harm. In some cases, it has been fatal. In others, it has left survivors with lifelong and irreversible complications resulting from enforced insulin rationing and prolonged hyperglycaemia.

Today, despite the peace agreement signed in October 2025 and the supposed ceasefire, the reality on the ground is even more alarming. International attention has faded, humanitarian access remains fragmented and unreliable, and Gaza’s health system has collapsed with no meaningful signs of recovery."

 

Click here to read the whole article.

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On January 29, 2026, Stanley Heller spoke with Dr. Akihiro Seita, Director of Health, UNRWA.  He said the insulin situation in UNRWA clinics is "improving".  There is a three-month stock at present. There are approximately 10,500 patients on insulin.  However, this is far from optimal as resupply is not guaranteed at all.  Israel controls all access and allows in medicine or prevents deliveries. Then there is the need for cold storage of the insulin and that is a problem because the Gaza electricity system was destroyed.  Electricity is being provided by solar panels. 
 
In his article of Aug. 2025 (see below) Dr. Seita talked about the need for sugar for diabetics.  This is because sometimes insulin works too strongly, causing hypoglycemia—a drop in blood sugar, that is very serious condition.  A little bit of sugar or some sweet juice will swiftly remedy the problem, but with the extreme poverty in Gaza those items may be out of reach.  Prices have gone down in Gaza since the ceasefire, but only a little.  People are not working.  And Israeli military attacks continue despite the supposed "ceasefire."
 
Our view is we should 1) demand completely unhindered supply to Gaza of insulin (and other medicines); 2) a rebuilt electrical system; 3) complete access to all supplies of food and other items waiting at the Egyptian border and being kept out by Israel

 

Earlier articles about the situation

 

No Spoonful of Sugar - Gaza Has Become a Killing Field - UNRWA, August 2025

"Children with type 1 diabetes need multiple daily insulin injections. But sometimes, insulin works too strongly, causing hypoglycemia—a drop in blood sugar that can lead to unconsciousness and even death. Yet with just a bit of sweet juice, candy, or sugar, it can easily be prevented or treated.  Even when life-saving insulin is available, there’s no sugar to stop the side effects. What wouldn’t even be a problem in a normal world is now a deadly reality in Gaza. It’s unbearably cruel."

 

Diabetes in the Shadow of Conflict: Understanding and Addressing the Crisis in Gaza - JAPA Academy Journal Jan.-March 2025

"Diabetic patients, like other patients with chronic diseases in Gaza, suffer from the scarcity of medications. In the United States, DM patients typically use about 5.9 different medications. Patients may require statins, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, sulfonylureas, alpha-glucosidase inhibitors, and insulin, in addition to other medications required to manage concurrent comorbidities.[18] The entry of medicines, including insulin pens, into the Gaza Strip has proven to be a difficult topic due to circumstances surrounding the matter."

 

Gaza’s Insulin Crisis: How Diabetics Are Fighting to Survive - Newsweek

"Abdallah Alabadla remembers the night he thought he was going to die. The college student had fled his home in Gaza City for Khan Younis, a place he thought would be safer. But soon after arriving, he found the city emptied of critical medical supplies.

'I went to every pharmacy in the area where I was staying, desperately looking for insulin,' he said in a phone interview from Cairo, where he evacuated in March. 'I thought I was going to die because I didn't find it. I don't know how to describe it. It was a horrible moment.'"...

"Insulin is one of the medicines in "acute shortage" in Gaza, according to the World Health Organization, recalling a time before the advent of insulin therapy, when having diabetes—today considered a treatable condition—almost always meant a death sentence within a matter of days or weeks.

Alabadla and others say they have gone to extreme measures to survive the shortage. They now frequently switch between multiple types of insulin based on availability rather than what is recommended for their unique needs, use expired insulin or resort to insulin rationing—a potentially fatal practice."

 

 

 

 

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