For decades, donating blood has been one of the most visible acts of solidarity among Palestinians in the war-torn coastal enclave, especially during wars.
Each new round of Israeli war or military tension would see thousands lining up outside hospitals, eager to save the wounded, even as bombs rained overhead.
Today, that tradition of resilience is breaking down. After nearly two years of an Israeli genocidal war, famine and malnutrition have drained the population's strength, leaving many too weak to donate a single drop of blood.
The result is a tragic paradox. At the very moment when hospitals need blood the most, Gaza's starving residents are unable to provide it.
Separately speaking to The New Arab, medical officials and doctors said this collapse in blood donations is worsening an already critical health crisis, one rooted not only in the relentless bombing but also in Israel's tightened blockade, which has systematically restricted food and medical supplies.
According to Gaza's Ministry of Health, famine and malnutrition have already claimed the lives of 361 Palestinians, including 130 children, turning hunger itself into a weapon of war.
At Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Mohammed Abu Zeid, a 25-year-old young man, sat on a worn plastic chair in front of the blood donation hall, staring at the ground and hesitating to enter.
The father of two who lost his job months ago, Abu Zeid, admitted in a faint voice that his body could no longer bear losing a single drop of blood.
"I used to donate blood during every war, but this time it's different. Now, I can barely stand due to hunger. For two days, all I had was a piece of bread and a sip of tea," he told TNA.
Mohammed's story is not an exception. Every day, dozens of Palestinians who once rushed to donate blood now find themselves too frail to help, as the demand for blood bags surges in overwhelmed hospitals.
Israel's war and the relentless bombing has flooded emergency rooms with casualties, yet the famine gripping Gaza has left would-be donors too weak to sustain even basic bodily functions.
Hospitals overwhelmed
Doctors describe an unprecedented health emergency. In addition to mass casualties from Israeli airstrikes, they face a dire shortage of blood as supply levels are drained by continuous surgeries.
"The current famine has rendered a large percentage of donors medically unfit. Their hemoglobin levels are critically low, and some faint immediately after trying to donate," Ahmed Salim, a doctor who works in a Gaza blood bank, told TNA.
"What's worse than the lack of supplies is seeing people desperate to help, but hunger prevents them," he added.
The Ministry of Health has issued a warning. Munir al-Barsh, the general director of the ministry, told TNA that "the blood shortage crisis has reached a dangerous level."
"Hundreds of surgeries are performed daily, but the majority of those who come to donate are rejected because of severe malnutrition. This famine is threatening lives in the operating rooms," he noted.
Mohammed Zaqout, head of Gaza's field hospitals, described the situation as "catastrophic."
"Young men arrive wanting to donate blood, only for us to discover that they themselves need transfusions. People are collapsing under the siege. The health system has entered a critical stage, and we are losing patients every day simply because we don’t have enough blood," he said.
This deepening crisis cannot be separated from the tightened Israeli blockade on Gaza. Since the start of the war 23 months ago, Israel has restricted the entry of food and medical aid, intensifying the closure of crossings on March 2 after the first phase of the temporary ceasefire ended.
Palestinian officials described these measures as "starvation engineering" aimed at breaking their resilience.
Although Israel resumed aid deliveries after four months, the quantities fall far short of Gaza's needs.
In a press statement, the Government Media Office reported that only 534 trucks entered Gaza in the last five days, representing barely a fraction of the 3,000 expected.
"Over a 35-day period, only 3,188 trucks arrived, covering just 15 per cent of the estimated 21,000 trucks required," the media government office added.
The media office accused Israel of deliberately fostering chaos by allowing looting and restricting vital supplies, including 430 essential food items needed by children, the sick, and the malnourished.
The shortages, the office warned, are directly compounding the health crisis and fuelling the blood bank catastrophe.
Families trapped
The impact is visible in hospital wards across Gaza. In Khan Younis, 27-year-old Hussam Qanna lies critically wounded after an Israeli strike on his neighbourhood. He requires multiple operations, but his family cannot secure enough blood.
"We searched among relatives, but most suffer from anaemia," his mother, Ahlam, told TNA.
"At the donation centres, we found people willing to help, but they were rejected because their bodies were too weak. Hunger is killing us twice, once in our stomachs, and once in our inability to save our loved ones," she said.
Similar stories repeat throughout Gaza's hospitals. At al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, the father of another wounded man, Mohammed Abu Amra, recalled how his relatives rushed to donate blood after a rocket attack, only to be turned away for being too malnourished.
"My son urgently needs surgery, but without enough blood units, we could lose him at any moment," he lamented.
"The hospital has no blood. Donors arrive, but they are skeletal, and none are approved. We are helpless," he said.
Doctors now warn that anaemia has become a widespread condition among Gaza's population, particularly among women and children, undermining every call for blood donations.
With Israeli-imposed famine sweeping throughout Gaza, solidarity, the same spirit that once saw thousands lining up to donate blood during past wars, has itself become a casualty.