For years, Palestinian public healthcare workers in the occupied West Bank have been paid only a small portion of their salaries, leading to a strike by the Palestinian Medical Association announced in May 2026. Basic medications are partially or wholly unavailable at public Palestinian hospitals throughout the West Bank. Governmental clinics and hospitals are limiting services to emergency and life-saving interventions. Patients are unable to access treatment for a wide range of illnesses and conditions.

All this is occurring against the backdrop of Israeli authorities' intensified military operations across the West Bank, accelerated settlement expansion along with settler violence, blocking Palestinian laborers from entering Israel, and a significant increase in withholding Palestinian Authority tax revenues.

Join PHRI’s Milena Ansari and Lee Caspi as they delve into the roots of a public health crisis that has gone under the radar, despite the catastrophic implications for the millions of Palestinian residents in the West Bank. In this episode of Diagnosing the Barriers, we attempt to unpick an issue with multifaceted, intersecting origins, including primary Israeli control over Palestinian customs revenues, impacting every aspect of daily civilian life in the West Bank.