Pregnant Palestinian women in the occupied West Bank are being forced to take dangerous detours to reach hospitals after being turned away or delayed at Israeli military checkpoints, as an already fragile healthcare system edges closer to total collapse. In one documented case, a woman who was haemorrhaging was unable to pass through a checkpoint in time, illustrating the life-threatening consequences of restricted movement for those with urgent medical needs.

The crisis in maternity care is part of a far broader deterioration in Palestinian public health. According to a report by Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI), a Tel Aviv-based NGO, 447 of the Palestinian Health Ministry's 590 local branches have drastically reduced their operations, many opening only one or two days per week — down from six days before October 2023. Only 63 percent of primary healthcare centres remained even partially operational in 2025. In some areas, the shortfall is stark: in Kfar Aktaba, a town of 13,000 people, a salaried public-sector doctor visits for just two hours once a week.

The root cause, PHRI argues, is financial. Israel collects customs and tax revenues on behalf of the Palestinian Authority under longstanding bilateral agreements, then transfers those funds to Ramallah. Those transfers have been suspended by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has publicly stated his intention to strangle the West Bank economy. The Palestinian Health Ministry has now accumulated a debt exceeding 1.18 billion dollars owed to private hospitals and pharmaceutical suppliers. Of the 1,260 essential medicines normally available, 160 are completely out of stock, roughly 600 have only days of supply remaining, and 250 are available only in limited quantities. Patients with cancer, diabetes, and chronic conditions are among the hardest hit.