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Paper short abstract

Drawing on extensive research into Gaza’s health political economy, this talk explores service delivery under occupation, outlining historical and macroeconomic forces, bargaining dynamics, and ideological underpinnings, while assessing barriers and prospects for systemic reform.

Paper long abstract

This presentation examines how health services in Gaza have been systematically disrupted under decades of Israeli occupation, blockade, and internal political fragmentation. Drawing on in-depth interviews with senior policymakers, health professionals, and caregivers, it analyzes how these structural conditions weakened service delivery, dismantled institutional capacity, and entrenched chronic health and humanitarian crises, shaping power, agency, and the sector's future in profound ways.

By centering the pre-October 2023 realities, this research provides critical context for understanding the severity of the damages caused by Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza, which has escalated into unprecedented violence, including the systematic targeting and destruction of health infrastructure. These attacks underscore the urgent need to strengthen community-led health resilience, and use innovative ways of service delivery, under conditions of active warfare, while recognising that reversing decades of de-development will only be possible with a complete end to the war and the conditions that sustain it.

This study has uniquely used creative dissemination strategies, such as animation, photography, theatre, poetry, and podcasts to convey the affective side of the research, democratise knowledge sharing, and foster international solidarity.