Gaza: Dialysis patients face grueling hospital journey by donkey cart

Shortly before sunrise, Palestinian Fathi Hajji begins an arduous thrice weekly journey to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.The elderly man sits in a wheelchair mounted on a donkey-drawn cart, with an oxygen cylinder and a small fan beside him as he makes his way from his tent in the Al-Mawasi area to the dialysis centre.“Since January 2024 until now, I have been undergoing dialysis sessions three times a week,” he said. “I suffer a lot because of transportation as I travel in a cart pulled by a donkey under the scorching sun, and thank God, what can we do? I have no other choice.”Near-daily ordealAccess to the hospital has become part of his daily struggle, given the destruction of infrastructure, the lack of transportation and the continued difficult humanitarian conditions in the Strip since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in 2023.Even with the October 2025 ceasefire, Gaza’s health system is still operating at limited capacity, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).Israeli attacks and widespread damage to health facilities, along with restrictions on the entry of medical supplies, continue to impede the provision of healthcare at a time when p...