
Israel Is Blocking Medical Care for Syrians in Newly Occupied Area of Golan Heights
The Israeli military is heavily restricting access to hospitals, medical centers, pharmacies, and ambulance crews in Syrian villages

GOLAN HEIGHTS, SYRIA—Twelve-year-old Hudhayfa al-Ghouri once spent his afternoons herding sheep through the olive groves of his village, al-Rafid, in Syria’s southern Quneitra governorate. That carefree childhood ended at age ten, when doctors discovered a tumor in his brain. Hudhayfa had become a familiar face in the corridors of the Al-Golan National Hospital since he required regular medical care.
His medical treatment, however, was disrupted by the December invasion of the Israeli military, who now occupy Quneitra and other parts of Syria, following the fall of Bashar al-Assad. Israeli troops seized control of large swathes of territory, reaching as far as Daraa province in the Yarmouk valley. Israeli officials have stated their intention to stay there indefinitely, and Israeli troops have entrenched and fortified their presence—upending life for Syrians across the Golan Heights, which Israel has occupied since 1967, and beyond.
"That Friday in March, I'll never forget it," Hudhayfa's mother, Abla, recounted, her voice breaking. "I had gone to visit my sick father when Hudhayfa's condition worsened. We couldn't leave the village, because Israeli soldiers had set up checkpoints that morning around the village. We were trapped until nightfall. By Saturday morning, I rented a car to rush him to al-Biruni Hospital in Damascus. There's no cancer treatment at Quneitra Hospital—only in Damascus,” she said.
She never returned home. She and her family have now been displaced to the Damascus suburbs.
“I can't risk going back to our home in al-Rafid. There are no safe roads anymore, not since the Israeli incursion," said the mother of three.
Al-Rafid lies just across from what was once a UN-patrolled demilitarized buffer zone between the Golan Heights and Syria. Israel’s recent military expansion to take control of more Syrian territory has thrust residents into a life under occupation, with curfews, roadblock, and crucially, restricted access to health care. Hospitals, medical centers, pharmacies, and emergency medical teams like the Red Crescent have all been affected by the Israeli takeover.
Dr. Mahmoud Ismail, a local physician, said there are at least nine cancer patients among al-Rafid’s roughly 6,000 residents, and since December, at least two have fled with their families. Mustafa al-Mousa, a cancer patient, also abandoned his home in the nearby village of al-Hamidiyah—now under Israeli military control—after Israeli forces detained a Syrian Red Crescent ambulance there for four hours in February. Residents say Israeli troops have shuttered the UN coordination office that once handled humanitarian access, leaving only village mayors (known in Arabic as mukhtars) to negotiate. That night in February, the mukhtar of the nearby village of al-Samdaniyah finally persuaded Israeli officers to release the ambulance and to allow the patient to be evacuated.
Anas al-Shabaani, who coordinates ambulance operations in the area, says they now refuse to send vehicles without airtight guarantees from the Israeli military of safe passage. During the questioning of the detained ambulance staff, al-Shabaani said that Israeli soldiers openly admitted their hostility toward the Red Crescent, accusing it of involvement in prisoner transfers during the Hamas-led offensive from Gaza on October 7, 2023.
Health Systems on the Brink
Al-Golan National Hospital is the only main hospital serving the Quneitra governorate, home to about 135,000 residents, which also serves an estimated 500,000 internally displaced people who fled when Israel seized the Golan Heights after the 1967 war.
Even before the annexation, the hospital was struggling under the weight of years of war, sanctions, and medical staff shortages—like much of Syria's healthcare system. Since December, the hospital system faces an even more urgent security threat: Israeli tanks now sit just beyond the provincial service district. They have shelled the area with munitions landing near the hospital's perimeter as recently as last month.
"We've had open vacancies for doctors for months," said hospital director Dr. Hassan Mahfoudh. "The health ministry promised us new hires, even pulled in an anesthesiologist from outside the system because of the desperate need. But all over Syria, the healthcare system has been gutted: doctors have emigrated, wages are low, and now with the Israeli presence, no one wants to risk coming here. There's no limit to the reach of their tanks or their bullets."
Mahfoudh insisted the hospital is still outperforming many Damascus facilities, despite lacking basic supplies and forcing patients to buy their own catheters and medications. Yet without vascular surgeons, patients who need fistula procedures must still travel to Damascus. Cancer patients receive only general health support and intensive care when necessary. No specialized oncology treatment is available locally.
The Syrian Red Crescent said its capacity to help cancer and kidney patients was minimal. "We have no special medications or aid for these cases," said Dr. Jumaa, head of the Quneitra branch. Since the February ambulance incident, the organization now faces grave security risks in Israeli-controlled zones. "We can't enter without confirmed coordination. These areas are effectively outside our reach."
Families are now forced to rely on private networks—such as relatives abroad, remittances, or community fundraising—to pay for drugs. "Some families have sold their land just to pay for treatment," said Dr. Ismail.
Dialysis Patients in Peril
The restrictions on access to health care have been felt most acutely by patients who require chronic treatment.
Serving patients who need at least two dialysis sessions a week, the dialysis unit at Al-Golan National Hospital serves patients from across the governorate. But, in order to get the care they need, they have to pass through a maze of military checkpoints and detours. "The roadblocks, the rerouted paths, the sudden checkpoints—they've made it so hard. We think every day about leaving the village and renting a place closer to the hospital, just to survive,” said Meryam al-Ali, a dialysis patient from al-Rafid.
"For dialysis patients, minutes count, even seconds," said Mehiran Mustafa, a nurse in the kidney unit.
Like 30-year-old Ghassan al-Mohammad from Qarqas, others have taken matters into their own hands. He makes the perilous trip to the hospital on his motorbike, weaving through unmonitored backroads to avoid both Israeli patrols and exorbitant car rental costs.
Obtaining medication has become an ordeal. In many villages in the area, pharmacies are little more than shops selling basic over-the-counter drugs—like fever reducers or simple antibiotics—with no capacity to stock specialized or high-cost medicines. According to Dr. Mahmoud Ismail, only two small pharmacies operate in al-Rafid, but there is little stock available as no pharmacist wants to risk investing in a large inventory given the precarity under Israeli control.
In al-Hamidiyah, the only pharmacy in the village was part of a government health center that the Israeli military closed down after the December incursion. Witnesses say Israeli forces detonated the center's door in March. It was later reopened by local staff. The reopened facility has limited hours and serves only the closest village, because of the barricades erected by Israeli forces. The al-Hamidiyah health center once served five neighboring villages—Um Al-Etham, Rasm Al-Rawady, eastern and western Al-Samadaniya, and Rasm Al-Shoula—but now, the Israeli military has blocked access to residents from those areas.
The local mokhtar added that the Ministry of Health has not replenished the health center’s stock of medication and medical kits, arguing that it now falls under Israeli control, which has left patients to grapple with sourcing urgent medications.
Even larger central pharmacies in the provincial capital can't fill the gap. Dr. Rasha Younes, who runs one of the main pharmacies in Quneitra, said they do not stock cancer medications. Those medications are only available in Damascus, where patients must travel for specialized care. Kidney medications are technically available, but they are expensive and many pharmacies hesitate to stock them in bulk given current security risks.
"Everyone here is waiting, bracing for what's coming," Younes said. "No one wants to tie up their capital when Israeli patrols can show up at the provincial gates."
Clinics Without Doctors
According to Khalidiya Kabboul, the province's health-planning chief, Quneitra has twenty-four health centers across its northern and southern zones, but only seven currently have doctors. The rest are staffed solely by local nurses. "Every center should have at least an internist and a dentist," she said. "But the Israeli military presence has effectively cut off villages from outside medical support." A foreign NGO, which once operated in eastern Syria and has expressed interest in setting up services in Quneitra, has reportedly demanded that its clinics be kept far from any Israeli military sites. The group did not want to be named amid ongoing discussions.
Al-Rafid Hospital was built with international aid during the civil war. After opposition forces in the area surrendered in 2018, the Assad government closed the hospital, sparking violent clashes between rival security agencies who sought to loot its equipment. Today, despite local pleas to reopen it and relieve the burden on Al-Golan National Hospital, the Damascus Health Directorate wants to strip its remaining assets. "This facility could save lives," said Dr. Ismail, "especially now, with the Israeli threat cutting off roads and filling our days with fear. We don't want to imagine the worst—full occupation—but we have to prepare."
Beyond the Israeli military presence, residents say sectarian tensions in Syria's coastal regions have also deterred doctors and nurses from accepting posts in Quneitra, which was long known for its diverse, nonsectarian population. "Under the new government, things have shifted," said one Damascus-based physician who asked to remain anonymous for fear of their safety. "Doctors from the coast now see Quneitra as a double risk—both from Israel and from old sectarian wounds."
For now, families like Hudhayfa's wait in limbo—caught between checkpoints and clinics. They now watch the horizon for the next round of tanks that might arrive, or the next ambulance that won’t be able to respond to their call.
This piece was published in collaboration with Egab.
* This article was updated to remove a claim that Médecins Sans Frontières reopened a clinic in al-Hamidiyah.
Apparently, the torture, starvation, and murder of innocent Palestinians has not satisfied Israel's rulers. They want to extend their ruthless, merciless slaughter of innocent people into the countries who are unfortunate enough to border the Israeli state. And in the midst of this horror, the so-called civilized world in the US and Europe does absolutely nothing to stop the carnage! It is utterly shameful!
Israel is cruel and evil! I wish the US would stop supporting them