MSF demands protection of south Gaza's lifeline, Nasser Hospital
In southern Gaza, displacement orders and movement restrictions imposed by Israeli authorities on Nasser Hospital are pushing this vital medical facility to the brink of becoming non-functional, warns Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
Throughout the war, Israeli forces have ordered hospitals to refuse new patients, making it harder for people to reach places of care. This has been a repeated pattern aimed at bringing down hospitals.
Nasser Hospital remains the last vital lifeline for people in need in the south of the Gaza Strip, and its full functionality must be restored immediately and preserved.
How movement restrictions impact care
On 3 June, our teams were told that any movement to Nasser Hospital would require authorisation and that this would have to be requested with at least 24 hours’ notice.
This meant that medical staff due on the day shift could not reach the hospital. The staff from the previous night had to continue working. They ended up staying on shift for 48 consecutive hours.
The outpatient department remained closed for the whole day. Ambulances that were able to carry patients to the hospital did so at great risk, as there was a danger they would be shot at because they lacked authorisation.
Nasser's location on the frontline hampers both staff and patients' ability to access this vital remaining hospital.
This is happening while people are exhausted, their lives shattered by 20 months of extremely violent war and a suffocating siege where even the distribution of minimal amounts of aid results in devastating massacres.
In this context, any remaining medical facility is of critical importance and must be protected.
Our work saves lives
“A death sentence”
The attacks on healthcare are not only carried out through military action. They happen through limitations imposed on the importation of medical supplies, forcing doctors to ration pain relief medicine.
They happen through displacement orders, leading to entire hospitals having to shut down at short notice. They happen through harassment and confusing orders issued by Israeli authorities, making it more and more difficult to provide lifesaving care.
“We have seen this pattern before”, says Jose Mas, head of MSF emergency programmes.
“It happened to facilities like Al Awda and the Indonesian hospital, in northern Gaza, where they were first asked to not admit more patients, and a few days later were attacked and practically shut down.”
“Putting Nasser Hospital out of service would equate to a death sentence for the most severely wounded patients among adults and children, critically ill patients, and women in need of emergency obstetric care.”
Nasser is a large referral hospital with many specialist wards not found anywhere else in the south of Gaza. These including operating theatres, an oxygen plant, ventilators, a blood bank, and incubators.
Reducing access to this hospital and blocking the referral of patients who need specialist, emergency care, stops people from receiving treatment that may save their lives.
Overflowing with patients
In the past few months, MSF medical teams in Nasser Hospital have provided care to over 500 patients in the maternity ward, including women requiring surgical care, as well as to more than 400 newborn babies and paediatric patients. The hospital is full of patients with burns and severe trauma.
Healthcare is under attack everywhere in Gaza. On the morning of 4 June, Israeli forces struck the MSF-supported Al Aqsa Hospital three times, the main facility in Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza.
Although no casualties were reported, it is a stark reminder of how patients, medical staff and health facilities are constantly at great risk in Gaza.
Our teams have received patients who have been critically injured while trying to get food, as a result of the shootings which have taken place around the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation food distribution centres.
This is in addition to the people who have been wounded in the ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip. Hospitals are overflowing with patients.
It's essential that Israeli authorities protect Nasser Hospital and guarantee full and unimpeded access to patients and medical staff alike, to avoid more deaths.
MSF and the Israel - Gaza war
An unprecedented humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Palestine. MSF teams have worked to treat the wounded and supply overwhelmed hospitals as indiscriminate airstrikes and a state of siege threaten millions of men, women and children.