Only 18 out of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are operating and more than 10,000 Palestinians require medical evacuation, according to the United Nations.
Qatar has established a first aid station in Gaza’s Father Amir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani Hospital for Rehabilitation and Prosthetics to support local medics in treating injuries amid Israel’s ongoing genocidal war.
In a statement on Monday, the Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD), which funds the hospital, said the station is treating emergency cases in northern Gaza.
“Systematic starvation, lack of medical resources and ongoing aggression are crimes that only deepen the suffering of innocent people, and they must stop immediately. Humanitarian aid is not a tool of pressure and must never be used as a weapon against the vulnerable,” Fahad Al-Sulaiti, QFFD’s Director General and Chairman of the Hospital’s Board of Directors, said.
The hospital has treated around 2,538 wounded people and received nearly 220 others who have been killed by Israeli occupation forces “over the past few weeks”, QFFD said. The facility received 1,227 injuries and 119 people killed by Israel during the past week.
“The responsibility is immense and requires the joint efforts of all international and local medical institutions to help alleviate the suffering of these wounded individuals,” Ahmad Naeem, Director General of Hamad Hospital, said in QFFD’s statement.
QFFD confirmed, in its latest statement, that the hospital has continued offering its services to hundreds of wounded Palestinians and people with disabilities. Its CT scan unit is also the only one currently operational in northern Gaza, according to the Qatari entity.
Inaugurated in 2019, the facility was the first prosthetic hospital to open in Gaza and was named after Qatar’s Father Amir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.
Israel had targeted the hospital on May 19, a move that was met with strong condemnation by Qatar. A statement by the Qatari foreign ministry following the attack said Israel’s attacks on medical facilities and civilians was “part of the war of genocide against” Palestinians.
The Qatari hospital supported Palestinians whose limbs were amputated from past Israeli aggressions on the Gaza Strip.
Gaza’s health ministry recorded more than 4,700 amputations, especially among children, since Israel waged the genocidal war in the blockaded territory on October 7, 2023. More than 10 children in Gaza lose one or both legs each day, according to the World Health Organization.
Israel has also caused the Gaza Strip’s health sector to collapse by relentlessly targeting its medical facilities and doctors while blocking aid from entering the territory.
Only 18 out of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are operating and more than 10,000 Palestinians require medical evacuation, the United Nations said on July 30.
Israel has carried out the genocidal war in the Gaza Strip for nearly two years, killing more than 61,700 Palestinians, with the figure only believed to be higher as thousands others remain under the rubble.
On Monday, Gaza’s health ministry confirmed that 180 Palestinians, including 93 children, have died as a result of malnutrition, with the figure expected to rise amid the ongoing blockade.
