Throughout the ongoing genocide, many more Palestinians have become disabled, and disabled Palestinians have been made so much more vulnerable due to the conditions they’re forced to live under. All Palestinians are targets of the IDF, and disabled Palestinians are no exception. It’s hard enough being disabled in any country. Imagine having to be disabled during a genocide. Nothing is accessible because the goal of genocide is to eradicate an entire group of people. Accessibility becomes less important than survival. Disabled people who understand the value of disability justice started advocating for a free Palestine even before this genocide started (see this statement about Palestine from Disability Justice-focused performance group Sins Invalid in 2014), but the fact that disability justice requires us to fight for Palestinians has become clear to many more people in the last three years.
It has been estimated that at least thirty Palestinians are temporarily or permanently disabled a day (I suspect the true number is much higher than this). Gaza has the highest number of child amputees per capita. Fuel, medicine, and equipment shortages threaten the lives of patients in addition to the constant bombs. Patients with diabetes, cancer, kidney disease, and other serious conditions are forced to go without treatment. Infectious diseases are spreading rapidly. Heat waves, environmental degradation, and a lack of adequate nutrition and water threaten the lives of Palestinians as well. The constant stress and trauma is also a health threat to all Palestinians, especially children.
Deaf and blind Palestinians receive no warning before strikes. Mobility aids are destroyed or lost, and there is a shortage of them available. Evacuating before a strike is especially challenging for disabled Palestinians. In April 2024, the Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children in Gaza shared on Facebook that 85% of children had lost access to their assistive devices (hearing aids, cochlear implants, and mobility aids). One of the most disturbing reports was when a man with Down Syndrome, Mohammad Bhar, was killed after the IDF raided his home, forced his family out, and left him to be attacked by a military dog. This happened in July of 2024. Mohammad was 24 years old.
Throughout the genocide we have heard about the bombings of hospitals, the attacks on healthcare workers, and the blocking of resources that are needed for hospitals to function properly. This has haunted me the most, as someone who regularly comes into contact with the healthcare system of the country supplying Israel with bombs to destroy the hospitals of Gaza. There is a term for the way Israel targets Gaza’s hospitals: medicide. Researchers Nicola Perugini and Neve Gordon define medicide as “the destruction of a healthcare system in whole or in part with the aim of obliterating or damaging the conditions needed for saving and sustaining the lives of the sick and the wounded.” This destruction clearly demonstrates the goal of the genocide: to make Gaza completely unlivable.
This didn’t start on October 7th. In 2014, the Mabarat Palestinian Association for the Disabled was bombed. Two female patients were killed. The association received no warning beforehand. Palestinians have not received the same access to COVID vaccines as Israelis. During the 2018-2019 Great March of Return protest, the IDF’s policy of “shooting to maim” led to a high level of Palestinian amputees. It also isn’t just in Gaza where disabled Palestinians are experiencing violence. Just last month, it was reported that a disabled Palestinian man was shot and wounded by Israeli settlers.
Every disability that exists is also present in Gaza. Gazans with autoimmune diseases and Diabetes and cancer are struggling to treat those conditions while Israel targets their hospitals. Autistic Palestinians live with constant sensory assaults as they fear for their lives and try to survive conditions nobody should be forced to live under. Disabled Palestinians are living with constant inaccessibility and life-threatening conditions created by genocide. On top of all this, more Palestinians become disabled every day. The American government that won’t give us free healthcare, the government that forces disabled people into poverty and won’t protect anyone from a pandemic, is eagerly funding this. US taxpayer dollars are being used to disable and murder Palestinians. Please do not forget that. End the genocide, end the occupation. There is no disability justice without a free Palestine.
Organizations to support/follow:
The Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children
Disability Justice for Palestine Collective
Sources
Beutels, F., & Verhoeven, M. (2025). Contextualizing disability: Settler-colonial power and the production of impairment in Palestine. DiGeSt - Journal of Diversity and Gender Studies, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.21825/digest.95437
Goodarzi, H., Badri, T., & Javadzadeh, H. R. (2023). War, forced displacement, and lack of healthcare in the Gaza Strip. Trauma Monthly, 28(5), 945-946. doi.org/10.30491/tm.2023.427311.1665
Hamamra, B., Mahamid, F., & Mayaleh, A. (2025). Childhood under siege: Battling malnutrition, disease, and despair during genocide in Gaza. Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition, 44(1), 321. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41043-025-00321-y
Sen, S., & Asi, Y. (2024). Coming to terms: Gaza and disability. Disability & Society. Advance online publication. doi.org/10.1002/nad.12187
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