The Palestinian health-care system is described as being incoherent and fragmented. This situation can be attributed to several challenging conditions:
the geographical separation and the disrupted movement between the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and east Jerusalem, checkpoints in the West Bank and Jerusalem, the separate government health systems in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and the heavy reliance on external health financing and the partial dependence on out-of-pocket payments borne directly by patients.