‘Longer we wait, worse it gets’: Struggle of Gaza’s breast cancer patients

Breast cancer patients in Gaza face delayed diagnoses, medicine shortages and limited access to scans and treatment, leaving many fearing their condition is worsening. Save Share Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip –Hiba Musbah has already been through seven rounds of chemotherapy for the breast cancer that is plaguing her body. Next week will be the eighth. But the 36-year-old mother of three, from eastern Deir el-Balah, says her condition has continued to deteriorate as she waits to travel outside Gaza for further treatment. “I can no longer take care of my children as I used to. My son is the one who helps me,” she told Al Jazeera. Her husband Motaz, who has a heart condition, has had to take on more responsibility as her health has worsened, caring for their three children – Mohammed, 13, Jaber, 10, and Ahmad, eight. Musbah first noticed lumps around her right breast in January 2024, a few months after the beginning of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. At the time, she initially ignored them because she was displaced and the war was intensifying. Her mother eventually insisted that she seek medical attention. Doctors confirmed it was cancer, but despite needing urgent surgery, it took two months for Musbah to be operated on, with the delay caused byIsraeli military attacks around the Nasser Hospitalin Khan Younis, where she was being treated. “The situation was difficult, with the bombardment and the tanks,” she said. “I delayed the operation because of the war. The last time, I nearly died from tank fire, so I postponed the operation.” Her chemotherapy was initially also delayed for seven months because medicines were unavailable at Nasser Hospital. Musbah’s experience reflects the reality facing hundreds of women with breast cancer in Gaza, where Israel’s war and blockade have severely weakened the health system’s ability to diagnose and treat the disease. Shortages of medicinesand medical equipment, broken diagnostic machines, the absence of radiotherapy and difficulties leaving the Gaza Strip for specialised care have turned the fight against cancer into another struggle amid Gaza’s deepening health and humanitarian crisis. The lack of access to diagnostic equipment is now another source of anxiety for Musbah. She explains that she needs a new computerised tomography (CT) scan to assess how her condition has progressed, but has been unable to obtain one because the equipment is unavailable at public hospitals....