‘I wish I had stayed with you’: Gaza mother died of cancer after waiting months to be evacuated
Summer remembers spending long days laughing, talking and sharing meals with her aunt Iktimal at her home near the beach in Gaza.
“She loved cooking and was always preparing delicious meals and desserts,” she says. “Iktimal had a warm and welcoming personality that made everyone feel at home.”
But in September – just a month before the one year anniversary of a ceasefire – the 53-year-old grandmother and mother-of-eight died of cancer, far from her loved ones in a hospital bed in Egypt.
Her family say that lengthy delays in her evacuation led to her death and that she is one of the many victims of the enclave’s devastated health system.
Iktimal knew something was wrong after she felt unwell in February 2026 and she underwent a biopsy around the same time.
But delays in obtaining medical equipment and essential supplies in Gaza’s histopathology labs meant that her diagnosis was delayed for more than a month.
After weeks of waiting, the results finally arrived: it was cervical cancer.
“When she was diagnosed with cancer, she was determined to fight it,” says Summer. “She was strong and hopeful, but she was also deeply afraid—not of the cancer itself, but of not being able to access the medical treatment she needed.
“One of her greatest fears was that her condition would continue to worsen because of delays and lack of adequate care, and that she would ultimately lose her life not because the cancer could not be treated, but because she was denied the chance to receive the treatment she needed.”
Iktimal’s worst fears became a reality.
After having her womb removed in April, her recovery was slow and painful. She began to experience severe pain in her kidneys and Summer says it became “increasingly clear that her condition was not improving”.
Local hospitals were unable to provide the medical care she required and the process to be evacuated for better treatment elsewhere was lengthy and complicated.
According to the World Health Organisation, none of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are operating at full capacity. Only 19 are functioning partially. They face critical deficits in crucial medical equipment, fuel, electricity and medicine.
Israel still restricts the entry of several items healthcare professionals consider crucial for what it says are security reasons. Last week the WHO said the restrictions on items such as life-saving medicines and prosthetics could have “devastating consequences”.
