Wounded suffer amid shortage of pain relief at hospitals

In Gaza's Nasser hospital, Mahmoud lies with a gunshot wound to his left leg. His knee is shattered and the wound has become -infected. The boy is writhing in pain but the doctors don't have the painkillers to ease his suffering.

- Misbah Khan

He is given a nerve block, which stops him from feeling anything, and the relief allows him to sleep for a while. But once that wears off, the agony returns.

More than 167,000 Palestinians have been injured in Gaza since 7 October 2023, according to Gaza's health ministry. From burns and blast wounds to lost limbs and fractured bones, Gaza's hospitals have been overwhelmed by patients in profound pain.

But a desperate shortage of drugs means there is little doctors can do. Treatment and operations need to be carried out without proper anaesthetics, and what painkillers there are have to be rationed.

According to analysis by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, more than half of the World Health Organization's medical missions into Gaza since January 2024 - including the delivery of medicines and fuel for hospitals, the deployment of staff and patient evacuations - have been denied, delayed, impeded or cancelled. Meanwhile, Israeli forces have bombed storage facilities and hospitals, while international convoys of medical supplies are routinely blocked from entering Gaza or face weeks of delays at the border.

The bureau spoke to eight doctors in Gaza who described the dire shortfall in pain relief drugs including opioids, anaesthetics and even paracetamol.