Gaza breast cancer patients wait years for care as treatment options shrink

Hiba Musbah, a 36-year-old mother of three from eastern Deir el-Balah in the Gaza Strip, is due to begin an eighth round of chemotherapy for breast cancer while she waits for permission to leave Gaza for further treatment. She told Al Jazeera her condition keeps getting worse. Her husband Motaz, who has a heart condition, has taken on more responsibility for their children – Mohammed, 13, Jaber, 10, and Ahmad, eight.

Musbah noticed lumps near her right breast in January 2024, months after the war began. Displaced and living through intensifying fighting, she ignored them until her mother insisted she get medical attention.

Doctors confirmed cancer, but although she needed urgent surgery, two months passed before the operation because of Israeli military attacks around Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where she was being treated. She said she postponed it after nearly dying from tank fire. Her chemotherapy was then delayed for seven months because Nasser Hospital had no medicines.

She also needs a CT scan to assess how far the disease has progressed, but says public hospitals lack the equipment. A private hospital has a scanner, she said, but the examination costs about 150 shekels ($48), which she cannot afford, and appointments can take more than three months. She described pain in her back, legs, shoulder and eyes and difficulty walking. "My doctor told me he was concerned that the disease might have spread through my body, but I still do not know," she said.

She says she has waited about two years to leave Gaza since receiving a medical referral. Israel, which controls all entry and exit, has not granted her security approval. Evacuations are coordinated by the World Health Organization and Gaza's Ministry of Health, which submit patients' files to Israel for screening.

Ministry warns of undiagnosed cases

Gaza's Ministry of Health says the strip recorded about 360 new breast cancer cases a year before the war, 250 in 2024 and about 260 in 2025, but warned the figures may understate the true total because screening and early diagnosis have largely collapsed. An October 1 statement said repeated breakdowns of mammography machines and laboratory supply shortages had severely limited early detection, while chemotherapy, hormonal and targeted therapies were unavailable or scarce and radiotherapy was completely unavailable.

A doctor who is also a patient

Dr Iman al-Haj Ahmad, an obstetrician and gynaecologist at Hikmat al-Jamei Health Centre in Deir el-Balah, knows these barriers as a doctor and as a patient diagnosed in May 2025. She said she had to search for somewhere to get a mammogram, then waited about a month for surgery at Nasser Hospital, performed by a visiting Jordanian medical team. Chemotherapy and food shortages cost her about 20kg (44lb) and weakened her immune system, forcing a pause in treatment. Now on hormonal therapy, she is waiting to travel abroad for radiotherapy, with a referral pending since September 2025. She still refers suspected cases to Al-Aqsa Hospital.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. At Hekr al-Jameh Health Centre, staff ran a campaign called "pink blooms from among the rubble", teaching women about the disease, demonstrating self-examination and offering psychological support. Sabreen al-Buhaisi, who supervises its primary healthcare services, said the centre screened between 700 and 800 women and referred seven or eight to hospital surgery departments. Free mammography is limited to a few hospitals with long waits, she said, and private screening is too expensive for many families.

Al Jazeera reports that a year has passed since the ceasefire began, though Israeli attacks continue, with the death toll from the war above 74,400 Palestinians.

Musbah says she keeps following up on travel arrangements but remains unable to leave, with no clear explanation for the delay. "I have been waiting for two years," she said. "And I still haven't travelled."

Source: Al Jazeera.