Providing Care in Gaza

Bruno Stevens

MSF sent additional staff and resources into Gaza on Thursday to support Gaza City’s al Shifa hospital, but one surgeon was refused entry at the border, reportedly because of a paperwork discrepancy. During a brief lull in the bombing, 28 patients managed to reach MSF’s clinic in Gaza City, more than had been able to access the facility since Israel's current military campaign begin.

With the onset of a ground invasion by the Israeli Defense Force and the resumption of aerial bombing, however, mobility has once again become constricted and medical facilities are preparing for new waves of casualties from a campaign that has already resulted in more than 200 deaths, a frighteningly high percentage of them civilians, including many women and children, in the densely packed Gaza Strip.

MSF staff in KhanYounis and Rafah distributed dressing kits for patients living in the south of the Gaza strip, where growing numbers of people who’ve evacuated their homes after warnings by the IDF to do so are seeking whatever shelter they can find.

Beit Lahia, Gaza Strip, Jan 22 2009 Mourning families gather over hundreds of fresh tombs in Beit l-Lahia's main cemetery.
Bruno Stevens