As people continue to lose limbs, and life is escaping their bodies under forced, human-made starvation and continuous displacement, there is only one partially functioning hospital left in North Gaza: Al Awda – Tal Al Zaatar, near Jabalia – which is supported by Relief International – and it is also under continuous bombardments and dangerously running out of all of its supplies.
There is no overstating the gravity of the situation for people suffering across the Gaza Strip, and especially in the north.
Nearly 12 weeks into a total siege, and amid intensifying bombing campaigns by the Government of Israel, the health-care system in the Gaza Strip is at the end of its rope. The few remaining hospitals are under unprecedented strain and nearly completely unable to meet the needs of a population that has been attacked relentlessly for 19 months.
Relief International, thanks to funding by the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), has been supporting Al Awda hospital near Jabalia in North Gaza, and Al Awda hospital in Nuseirat, central Gaza.
North Gaza
The Al Awda facility is the last hospital to be operational, albeit partially. All other previously partially functioning hospitals in the governorate have lost the ability to provide these services due to recent airstrikes. The hospital itself continues to be hit through repeated attacks: its premises have been struck at least 20 times since the conflict escalated in October 2023, and floors of patient rooms have been reduced to rubble.
On 20 May, its ambulance was directly hit by four bullets fired by an Israeli quadcopter. On 21 May, the hospital’s water tanks were hit and a staff member was injured when another patient ward was struck.
Three times, in just one month, the surrounding area of the hospital has been placed under forced evacuation orders. The medical staff is refusing to evacuate as this would place the patients in danger.
Renovations funded by European taxpayers and worth tens of thousands of dollars—carried out over the past weeks to repair shattered walls, windows and doors—have been obliterated by Israel’s ongoing bombings in the area.
In early May, one of the hospital’s doctors was killed in her home alongside her children, the sixth of the hospital’s workers to have been killed since October 2023. The hospital’s Director, Dr Mohammed Salha, lost his two nephews and a niece in another airstrike, just nights ago, while he was up at night working to save lives against impossible odds.
“We are doing our best, but we cannot catch our breath,” said Dr Salha. “We are running out of everything: medicines, fuel for the medical machines, beds, energy… The patients, the staff, everyone is at the end of their rope. We are receiving dozens of injured every day, and too many lifeless bodies. This must stop.”
Dr Salha noted that most people in need of care do not even have the capacity to reach the hospital because moving has become “too dangerous in North Gaza”, and the “extreme levels of hunger are leaving people too weak to walk”.
Central Gaza
In central Gaza, maternal and malnutrition care are stretched to the limit
In Nuseirat, central Gaza, the second Al Awda Hospital supported by Relief International remains one of the few facilities in the south of the Strip still offering some maternal health and malnutrition care. However, with supplies dwindling and no replenishments allowed in, the clock is ticking.
The hospital’s outpatient nutrition services support hundreds of malnourished patients monthly. Currently, six children under five with severe acute malnutrition and related medical complications are being treated in its stabilization center, also ECHO-funded.
If supply chains remain blocked, these vital services will have to cease within a few weeks, even as more and more people require this kind of life-saving support as starvation levels increase.
Essential supplies for survival: entry denied
Relief International has had five shipments of essential medicines, medical equipment and supplies awaiting pre-approval by the Israeli authorities for over two months. Countless more by United Nations and other NGO entities – including fuel which is essential for hospital operations in a territory with no access to the electric grid – await authorization to enter.
These supplies could help hundreds of thousands of people in dire need of a respite.
Since October 2023, tens of thousands of lives have been lost and tens of thousands more people have been maimed—physically and psychologically—in ways no human being should ever endure. If the attacks continue and if humanitarian supplies are not urgently allowed in, more lives will be lost on our watch.
Not a second left to waste: another call for immediate action
Over 2 million Palestinian women, children and men are trapped in this human-made catastrophe, most of them displaced multiple times, starving, and without access to the most basic health care.
The world must act now—before the final threads of Gaza’s health-care system are severed beyond repair.
In accordance with international humanitarian law, several UN Security Council Resolutions and the recent Advisory Opinions of the International Court of Justice, Relief International urgently calls on all governments and stakeholders with influence to:
- Demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire and a halt to the bombing campaigns against civilians, humanitarian workers and facilities, including hospitals and health-care staff, across the Gaza Strip.
- Ensure the unimpeded entry of humanitarian aid at scale and without delay for all people in need in Gaza.
- Facilitate as fast as possible the medical evacuation of the thousands of people in need of medical treatment outside Gaza.
