GAZA — With Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure on the brink of collapse after 18 months of war, local physicians continue to serve their communities under dire conditions. Among them is Dr. Wissam Sukkar, a general practitioner with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), who endures long walks through rubble-strewn streets each morning to reach her improvised clinic.

“I was walking for around 50 minutes to reach our clinic,” Dr. Sukkar said, noting the lack of fuel and public transport in northern Gaza. Her former workplace — an MSF burns clinic — was destroyed in the early weeks of the conflict. The team now operates from a makeshift facility in western Gaza City.

By 9:30 a.m., over 150 patients, mostly displaced residents, waited outside in a tented area. “They live in shelters, they even live in tents in the streets,” said Dr. Sukkar, as she began seeing patients, many of whom were children suffering from malnutrition, respiratory infections, and diarrheal diseases.

The collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system has left doctors without the means to treat complex cases. “We receive complicated patients and we don’t know where to refer them,” she said. The situation worsened further after a recent Israeli airstrike rendered Gaza’s al-Ahli Arab Hospital — once the main trauma center in the north — inoperable.

Saeed Barkat, a man recovering from surgery after being wounded in shelling, arrived at the clinic for follow-up care. “I started my treatment at al-Shifa hospital, then I got transferred to al-Ahli and they bombed it,” he said, as nurses treated his injuries.

Dr. Sukkar’s daily challenges extend beyond her clinic. With Israeli restrictions blocking aid into the territory since early March, critical medical supplies have run dry. “We don’t have insulin for diabetes, no epilepsy medications, not even basic fever reducers,” she said, adding that stocks would likely be depleted within two weeks.

Doctors are forced to ration what remains. Skin infections are on the rise, but “we don’t have creams or ointments to treat them,” she added. The clinic's small pharmacy shelves are nearly empty.

After treating nearly 390 patients in a single day, Dr. Sukkar closed her consultation room at 3:30 p.m. and began her long walk home — a journey through a devastated city where her own family has been displaced nine times.

“Like every Gazan, I have a daily struggle to secure clean water and food for my kids,” she said. “We don’t have electricity. It’s really hard to have any hope. I feel I live in a nightmare that doesn’t end.” — BBC