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.
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 by Israeli military attacks around the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where she was being treated.
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 medicines and 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. A private hospital has a scanner, she said, but the examination costs about 150 shekels ($48), which she cannot afford.
The waiting time for an appointment can also exceed three months. My condition has become much more difficult because my treatment was delayed,” she said. But Israel, which controls all entry and exit from Gaza, has yet to give her security approval to travel.
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