Gaza’s patients are facing a compounded threat to their lives due to Israel’s continued restrictions on the entry and exit of people and goods, particularly medicine and medical supplies, including anesthetic gases, under its closure policy on the Gaza Strip.     Recently, the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza warned that the diminishing supplies of Nitrous Oxide (nitrox) gas would directly impede the provision of both urgent and pre-scheduled surgical procedures in public and private hospitals. According to the Ministry’s statement, the healthcare system’s demand of anesthetic gas stands at roughly 3,500 kilograms per year (130 cylinders monthly, with each holding around 27 kg).     Medical gases fall under Israel’s list of ‘dual-use’ items, which require special permission from Israeli authorities for entry to Gaza. There are currently around 200 empty cylinders of Nitrous Oxide needing a green light for transport out of Gaza and refill.      The public health sector, perpetually on the brink of collapse due to Israel’s closure policies and repeated military attacks, is the main provider of primary and secondary care in Gaza. The Ministry of Health runs the sector and regulates the provision of services through 78 percent of the overall hospital bed capacity in Gaza’s 36 hospitals, which stands at 3,338 beds. The Ministry also often contracts private hospitals to compensate for the lack of qualified personnel and medical equipment in its hospitals.      In 2020, a total of 211,227 patients were admitted to hospitals throughout the Gaza Strip, 76.7 percent of them to hospitals run by the Ministry. Further, 92,027 surgeries were performed, about 63 percent of which took place also in MoH hospitals.      The consistent shortage of critical medical drugs and supplies is taking a heavy toll on the following medical fields: emergency and intensive care, primary healthcare, cancer care and hematology, and hemodialysis, with the Ministry’s July 2021 reports showing that 41 percent of essential drugs and 23 percent of medical disposables are at ‘zero stock,’ meaning less than one month's supply is available.   Additionally, the overall shortage of oncology and hematology drugs stands at 60 percent. This is directly affecting the regimens needed to treat around 8,644 patients in the Gaza Strip. This forces around 50-60 percent of them out of the Strip to seek specialized diagnostic imaging, chemotherapy, and radiology otherwise unavailable in Gaza. It should be noted that 1,800 patients are diagnosed with cancer every year.   Yet, Israeli authorities continue to obstruct the access of about 60 percent of these patients to hospitals in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, in closure measures that are implemented in the face of urgent humanitarian needs. This leads to the drastic deterioration in some patients’ conditions and in the most serious cases patients who have not received the urgent permit have died. Al Mezan’s documentation shows that at the height of Israel’s restrictions on patients this year, implemented following Israel’s May 2021 military escalation, four Palestinian patients in Gaza, including two children, died that month alone when permits were not granted.     In light of these facts, Al Mezan calls on the international community to:   Take prompt action to allow the entry of medical supplies, notably anesthetic gas, into the Gaza Strip, and ensure that Israel ceases restrictions undermining Palestinians’ rights to health and to life in line with its legal obligations as an occupying power and duty-bearer vis-à-vis the protected Palestinian people; Activate accountability mechanisms and prosecute those suspected of committing the most serious crimes of concern; Take tangible steps to end Israel’s closure on Gaza while also mobilizing support to the Palestinian health sector.