New commentary on tobacco control in Palestine

22 May 2025, at 18:27.

A new commentary from Tobacco Tactics members Tom Gatehouse and Raouf Alebshehy, along with Nour Obeidat from the King Hussein Cancer Center in Jordan, discusses tobacco control in Palestine in the current context of war.

Tobacco control in Palestine was extremely marginal even before the escalation of violence in October 2023. With the wider healthcare system now in ruins, following almost two years of near-constant bombing, it is now virtually non-existent. Yet tobacco use, and the non-communicable diseases with which it is associated, are likely to be exacerbated by the effects of the war, leading to severe and long-lasting consequences for public health.

The authors also explore how Palestine might leverage international support to join the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) and make tobacco control a key building block of the country’s eventual recovery plans. They call for the public health community in other countries to support their Palestinian colleagues and lay the groundwork for strong implementation of the treaty.

Lead author Tom Gatehouse explains:

“When we consider the current situation in Gaza, tobacco control obviously seems like a secondary concern. But Palestine suffers from relatively high rates of noncommunicable diseases, many of which are caused and/or exacerbated by tobacco use. With Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure in ruins, and with the war having disrupted supply chains, many of these diseases are now going untreated. Moreover, the catastrophic impact of the war on Palestinian mental health is also likely to lead to greater tobacco use in future, further increasing the burden of NCDs. This is a second public health crisis, playing out in the shadows of the war.”

Read the commentary:

Tobacco control in the State of Palestine during wartime, T. Gatehouse, N.A. Obeidat, R. Alebshehy, East Mediterr Health J. 2025;31( 4):285–287, doi: 10.26719/2025.31.4.285