Gaza’s Prosthetics and Polio Centre has warned that around 6,000 amputations have been recorded since the start of the war, creating an unprecedented prosthetics, rehabilitation and assistive-technology crisis for injured civilians.
According to a report published by the Yemen News Agency SABA, Husni Muhanna, media officer for the Prosthetics and Polio Centre in Gaza, said the scale of amputation represents a humanitarian and health catastrophe. He noted that the centre is currently relying on a small local workshop because of the siege, destruction of medical facilities and inability to access essential raw materials.
For the orthotics and prosthetics community, the report is a stark reminder that Gaza’s crisis is no longer only an emergency trauma issue. It is now a long-term disability crisis requiring prosthetic limbs, orthotic care, physiotherapy, psychological support, assistive devices, pain management and sustained rehabilitation services.
Muhanna said restrictions on the entry of essential raw materials have “completely paralysed” the centre’s ability to manufacture prosthetic limbs, particularly upper-limb prostheses. He also warned that shortages of components and assistive devices have created long waiting lists that continue to grow as new injured people arrive each day.
This is a critical point for rehabilitation planners. Prosthetic care cannot be delivered through mass distribution alone. Every prosthesis requires clinical assessment, measurement, socket design, fabrication, fitting, alignment, training and follow-up. For children, the pathway is even more demanding because growth requires repeated socket and component replacement over time.
The SABA report states that approximately 25% of Gaza’s amputation cases are children, meaning thousands of young people may face permanent disability at an early age without reliable access to prosthetics and long-term rehabilitation. The same figure was also cited in reports marking the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, with Gaza’s Health Ministry warning that amputees require urgent and long-term rehabilitation.
The shortage of prosthetic capacity is also confirmed by humanitarian organisations. Humanity & Inclusion has warned that Gaza’s prosthetics sector is under extreme pressure, with only a very small number of active prosthetists available to meet thousands of cases and with critical materials such as prosthetic components, liners and raw materials in short supply.
The World Health Organization has previously estimated that 5,000 to 6,000 people in Gaza had undergone amputations by early October 2025, among tens of thousands of people with life-changing injuries. A May 2026 trauma rehabilitation needs update reported 2,277 amputees evaluated between September 2024 and May 2026, with only 502 prosthetics fitted, and found that 18% of evaluated amputees were children and 76% had lower-limb amputations.
The gap between need and provision is therefore enormous. Thousands of people require prosthetic assessment, but only a fraction have been fitted. Many others remain in temporary conditions, using crutches, wheelchairs, improvised aids or no mobility device at all. For people with bilateral amputations, upper-limb loss or complex blast injuries, the functional impact is even more severe.
Muhanna also highlighted barriers beyond the prosthetic workshop. Forced displacement, damaged roads, transport shortages and the fuel blockade are preventing wounded people and amputees from reaching the remaining treatment and rehabilitation centres. This means that even when a service exists, access may be impossible for those living in tents, shelters or displaced communities far from functioning clinics.
For IMEA CPO readers, Gaza demonstrates why prosthetic rehabilitation must be treated as an essential part of emergency response. The pathway from injury to recovery includes far more than surgery. It requires:
Without these services, an amputation can become far more disabling than it needs to be. Delayed fitting, poor socket comfort, lack of physiotherapy, untreated pain and absence of follow-up can lead to contractures, skin breakdown, falls, dependency, depression and long-term exclusion from education, work and community life.
The situation is especially serious for children. Paediatric amputees need age-appropriate rehabilitation, repeated refitting, school reintegration, family counselling and psychosocial care. A prosthesis delivered once is not enough. Children may require multiple devices as they grow, and their rehabilitation goals change over time — from basic mobility to play, education, social participation and eventual employment.
The collapse of Gaza’s rehabilitation infrastructure also places local clinicians under extreme pressure. Before the war, Gaza had limited but functioning rehabilitation and prosthetic services. Today, remaining teams are working with scarce materials, damaged infrastructure and overwhelming caseloads. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics has reported severe shortages of assistive devices, including wheelchairs, walkers, hearing aids, eyeglasses, crutches and prosthetics, alongside critically lacking rehabilitation services.
For donors and humanitarian agencies, the message is clear: prosthetics, orthotics and rehabilitation supplies must be prioritised alongside surgical and trauma materials. Plaster, thermoplastics, liners, knees, feet, pylons, adapters, hand components, wheelchair parts, pressure-relief materials and workshop tools are not optional extras. They are the basic infrastructure of mobility recovery.
Humanity & Inclusion has also stressed that prosthetics cannot simply be imported as finished products. Each device must be custom-made to the user’s anatomy and functional needs, using specialist materials and trained prosthetic professionals. Without proper fitting, a prosthesis can cause further injury rather than restore mobility.
Gaza’s rehabilitation crisis therefore requires a multi-level response:
For the IMEA region, the implications are wider than Gaza. Conflict-related limb loss, road traffic trauma, diabetes-related amputation and fragile rehabilitation systems are already major challenges across parts of the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. Gaza shows what happens when trauma demand rises sharply while prosthetic supply chains and rehabilitation infrastructure collapse.
The warning from Gaza’s Prosthetics and Polio Centre should therefore be read as an urgent call for sustained rehabilitation action. The number of amputees is not just a statistic. Each case represents a person who may need years of clinical care, assistive technology, emotional support and social reintegration.
The immediate need is to restore access to materials, clinicians and services. The long-term challenge is to rebuild a rehabilitation system capable of supporting thousands of people with life-changing injuries. For Gaza’s amputees — especially children — mobility, dignity and participation will depend on whether the international response treats prosthetics and rehabilitation as essential healthcare.