In the Gaza Strip, to date approximately 120 people have died and 360 have been wounded, including women and children. Victims are still being freed from the rubble of destroyed buildings. Given the seriousness of their injuries, most patients must be hospitalized and the mortality rate is quite high. Twenty-five percent of the casualties resulted in death.

Up to seventy-five new patients expected

MSF's clinics have reopened and post-operative care has resumed in Gaza and Khan Younis. Our goal is to care for patients referred from the Shifa hospital's surgical department (the first patient was referred on Tuesday) and by other health facilities. Yesterday (Thursday, March 6), our teams conducted evaluations at the Shifa, Kamal Edwan and Al Awda hospitals. Twenty-four patients will soon enter our post-operative care programs. This does not include the Jabaliya area, which will be evaluated on Sunday March 9, and from which other wounded patients may be referred. Nor do these projections include the many wounded persons referred in Egypt who will subsequently require post-operative care. To address this increased need, an additional mobile medical team will travel through the northern Gaza Strip. Teams will also be increased and shifts will be assigned in our clinics so that they can remain open longer, if necessary.

Mobile medical teams have resumed home visits to patients who cannot travel. We have distributed large quantities of medical supplies (specifically, drips) and medicines from our emergency inventory. After a new needs evaluation, we distributed dressing and suture supplies to emergency departments at the Shifa hospital and several others in the northern Gaza Strip. If the Shifa emergency department cannot cope with the volume of patients, we will also be able to relieve them and treat minor surgeries, sutures and other procedures.

Gaza: The Situation Has Been Deteriorating For Years

The current humanitarian crisis in Gaza has received widespread media attention and criticism by the international community and NGOs. MSF notes that this situation is not new, but the result of a combination of political and economic factors, aggravated by the blockade.

Several months ago, our field teams observed that health conditions continued to deteriorate in the Occupied Territories. Duncan, head of mission, noted that "the dual conflict—Israeli—Palestinian and inter—Palestinian—and the blockade of the Gaza Strip has serious consequences for the health system. This also affects our work."

The situation is complicated by years of violence associated with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; the economic embargo and its tightening, since January, particularly with respect to supplies of electricity and fuel; and last summer's inter-Palestinian clash, when hospitals were targeted and staff forced to strike. Humanitarian actors took sides and access to health care was blocked. Together with the latest violence, these events have weakened the health system in the Occupied Territories.

While supply problems are not new, the most recent spikes of violence have heightened the pressure on weakened health facilities. Our teams are in regular contact with hospitals in the Gaza Strip and report that despite the constraints, they continue to provide basic care. MSF has helped to address shortages in medical supplies and medicine through regular donations.