"They will relapse," he said.
At the hospital pharmacy, the shelves are becoming bare.
"I swear there is none of that medicine, not even one pill," Laura Menawi, an exasperated pharmacist, told a patient looking for CellCept, a drug used to prevent the rejection of a transplanted organ.
With little anesthesia left, the hospital is limiting surgery to emergencies. "I am afraid that after two weeks, we won't even be able to do these," said Dr. Juma al Saqqa.
The US said it would increase humanitarian assistance to alleviate the impact of cuts in government funding, but international aid officials said that won't work.
Aid groups are only equipped to provide food, temporary work and lifesaving measures, said David Shearer, head of the local UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Any effort to duplicate the services of the Palestinian Authority "would likely be less effective, less coordinated and cost more money," he said.
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