Doctors and nurses in Gaza are warning of critical medicine shortages, with women and children suffering the most as the Israeli aid blockade of the strip stretches into its sixth week.
In early March, the Netanyahu government announced it would prevent all trucks laden with vital supplies from entering Gaza, as it tried to ratchet up pressure on Hamas to release the 59 remaining Israeli hostages — 35 of whom are believed to be dead.
Since then, no convoys have crossed into the war-ravaged strip.
Humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said the situation was forcing it to make tough decisions at its clinics across Gaza.
Medications, such as those needed to treat high blood pressure and diabetes, are running desperately short.
"We have what we call the first line of medication- and this first line of medication is the best drug for that particular disease," MSF coordinator Chiara Lodi told the ABC at a clinic in Al-Mawasi, southern Gaza.
"Now what we have to do, or what we've started to do, is start to use like what is not the first line — so this is not the best choice for that particular disease.
"The clinics are open, the hospitals are open, but this impacts the quality that we are providing."
The situation is forcing medical staff to make the difficult decision to send some patients home if their condition is not as critical as others.
At the Al-Mawasi clinic, Ms Lodi said staff were seeing around 200 pregnant women a day.
"For this special category, so for a pregnant [woman], they cannot take the antibiotics that the other people take.
"There are specific antibiotics for pregnant [women], and we have seen our stock depleting day by day."
Mothers line up for whatever medicines they can get
Amina Al-Dahdouh, 31, was among the mothers lining up for treatment at the Al-Mawasi clinic, with her eight-year-old son Mohamed.
She believed he was wrongly diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, and is worried he cannot get appropriate treatment and medicine.
"They tell me that his condition is difficult, and his chest is in bad condition," she told the ABC.
"They try so many times to take a biopsy to know what he is suffering from [but] they could not.
"They don't know anything about his condition. They don't have the equipment to diagnose my son's condition."
In a nearby room, 39-year-old Shimaa Hamed Al Satary clutched her 15-month-old son who has a kidney condition.
She is also pregnant with her second child.
"Though I am pregnant, and my son is about to be born, and I have not received any vitamins, food, or medication," she said.
"My son also has been suffering and his condition is deteriorating because he is not rightly diagnosed.
"Since he was four months, and he is sick and had not received anything — my son has been in the hospital for a month, I have not received any medication for him."
Another pregnant woman in the clinic waiting area was 25-year-old Islam Al-Sha'ir, who was due to give birth any moment.
It was a problem she said was exacerbated by her living in a tent after being forced to flee her home with her family.
"I didn't get any medicine, food supplements or vitamins during my pregnancy because the borders of Gaza were closed," she said.
"I was afraid during these times that I would give birth to a child with problems or suffering."
Israeli blockade of Gaza continues
Earlier in the week, reports emerged that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had suggested the humanitarian blockade could be lifted in coming weeks, with suggestions the ongoing refusal to allow supplies into Gaza would no longer be feasible.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office rejected those reports, insisting Hamas needed to remain under considerable pressure.
The ABC approached the Israeli agency which coordinates aid and services in Gaza, COGAT for comment — it directed queries to the Prime Minister's Office.
The IDF was also asked a series of questions about the situation. It said it was carrying out the will of the government and it refused to provide aid to terrorists.
On Monday, senior officials from a number of United Nations agencies said the blockade showed "an utter disregard for human life" for the 2.1 million people in Gaza.
"With the tightened Israeli blockade on Gaza now in its second month, we appeal to world leaders to act — firmly, urgently and decisively — to ensure the basic principles of international humanitarian law are upheld," the officials said in a joint statement.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry's spokesman took aim at criticism from the UN secretary-general on the matter, accusing Antonio Guterres of "spreading slander against Israel".
"There is no shortage of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip — over 25,000 aid trucks have entered the Gaza Strip in the 42 days of the cease fire," Oren Marmorstein posted on social media platform X.
"Hamas used this aid to rebuild its war machine."
MSF's Chiara Lodi said the situation could deteriorate the longer the blockade continued.
"We can see clinics closing because they don't have any more medications, and then gradually probably hospitals.
"Without medical supplies and without medical material, we cannot operate."
