July 2024- In Khan Younis, southern Gaza, Palestine, fighting is approaching ever closer to Nasser hospital, putting it under threat and jeopardising people’s access to medical care. This comes as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams at Nasser and Al-Aqsa hospitals have responded to 10 mass influxes of badly injured people in July alone, following bombings in the area. MSF urgently calls on all warring parties to ensure people’s safe access to medical care and to avoid the evacuation of Nasser hospital, which would endanger hundreds of patients.
“Any escalation of fighting near the hospital would obstruct access for patients and medical staff, making it impossible to provide care,” says Jacob Granger, MSF project coordinator in Gaza. “The health system is completely decimated and evacuating hundreds of patients and medical supplies, hastily or not, would be an impossible task.”
“It would have devastating consequences for people in the area, who have nowhere else to go,” says Granger. “Closing Nasser Hospital is not an option.”
Nasser Hospital is providing care for an estimated 550 patients, including people with severe burns and trauma injuries, newborns, and pregnant women. People currently admitted in the hospital need continuous, lifesaving treatment, including those who require a high level of care, oxygen therapy, or close monitoring. As the last main hospital in southern Gaza, Nasser Hospital also provides essential support, including oxygen production, to several other health facilities in the surrounding area.
The war encroaches on Nasser Hospital as massive numbers of wounded patients flood MSF teams in Nasser and Al-Aqsa hospitals. In July alone, this has occurred on 10 separate occasions, following strikes and fighting, often in areas where displaced people are sheltering.
Also Read: Displaced People Forced to Evacuate Nasser Hospital Have Nowhere to Go in Gaza
“Every day in July has been one shock after another,” says Dr Javid Abdelmoneim, MSF medical team leader. “[On 24 July] I walked in behind a curtain, and there was a little girl alone, dying by herself. And that’s the outcome of a collapsed health system: a little eight-year-old girl, dying alone on a trolley in the emergency room. In a functioning health system, she would have been saved.”
According to the Ministry of Health, levels of blood in the blood bank at Nasser Hospital are critically low after five successive waves of incoming patients, with around 180 people killed and 600 injured. One in 10 people who volunteered to give blood during an MSF-supported Ministry of Health blood collection activity, were unfit to donate due to anaemia or malnutrition. The overwhelming number of patients prevents the emergency department at Al-Aqsa Hospital from functioning properly. Before the war, Al-Aqsa hospital had some 220 patients beds. Currently, the hospital has 550 – 600 patients admitted.
“Al-Aqsa hospital is already several hundred patients over its bed capacity,” says Alice Worsley, MSF nurse activity manager. The overcapacity comes after receiving patients from an Israeli strike on Khadija school in Deir Al-Balah on 27 July. “The situation was desperate: even the most dedicated response can’t always save lives without enough supplies, beds, and medical staff.”
Furthermore, MSF calls on all parties to ensure safe access to care and avoid the evacuation of Nasser Hospital, which would endanger hundreds of patients.
