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STORY: WHO / GAZA HOSPITALS SITUATION
TRT: 05:00
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WHO ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ARABIC / ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 01 JULY 2025, GAZA, PALESTINE
01 JULY 2025, SHIFA MEDICAL COMPLEX, NORTH GAZA, PALESTINE
1. Pan left, patients and companions sitting in the grounds of the hospital
2. Med shot, patient, with an external fixator attached to his left leg
3. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ibrahim, Patient:
“Al-Shifa is in a bad situation, God help those who are inside, they can barely handle the heat inside, and they are also in huge numbers, may God help the doctors and assist them, they are running from one patient to another having no idea where to go, there are too many people inside for the doctors to handle, and you have those who are dying from the lack of medications.”
4. Various shots, inside the Emergency Department, patients lying on the floor
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Dr Abdul Mahdi Al-Khawaja. Orthopaedic Specialist, PANZMA Emergency Medical Team:
“The staff are completely exhausted. The injuries we receive are a combination of multiple injuries: head and neck injuries, bone injuries, abdominal injuries. The medical teams work together to save a patient's life. We receive approximately 100-150 patients per hour. Operations are running 24 hours a day. Some people die on the operating table. Others die on the floor of the emergency room. Most injuries require medical intervention. Most injuries require medical supplies. As an orthopaedic specialist, those supplies aren't available. External fixators don't even hold plates in place. The metal wires used to stabilize bones aren't available.”
6. Wide shot, patients and companions waiting to be treated
7. Med shot, patient in a wheelchair
8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Dr Mohamad Abu Sulmeyeh, Director, Al-Shifa Medical Complex:
“We are facing great difficulty in obtaining the fuel needed to start the generators to have the hospital running and we’ve shut down the dialysis unit. We are now using small generators to keep the intensive care unit and operating rooms running, and this of course exacerbates the patients' conditions. Patients with kidney failure are suffering greatly. There is a significant shortage of heart disease supplies and patients who need cardiac catheterization.”
9. Pan left, patients and companions sitting in the grounds of the hospital
10. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Dr Mohamad Abu Sulmeyeh, Director, Al-Shifa Medical Complex:
“Cancer patients are suffering greatly. There is no chemotherapy or radiotherapy. There is nothing there today. The health situation in the Gaza Strip and the health system are suffering greatly.”
11. Wide shot, patient on a stretcher arriving for treatment
01 JULY 2025, PRCS FIELD HOSPITAL, KHAN YOUNIS, GAZA, PALESTINE
12. Various shots, injured people arriving by various forms of transport
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Richard Peeperkorn, WHO Representative, Occupied Palestinian Territory:
“What we notice here in the field hospitals, similar to what we saw in Shifa Hospital this morning, we see an overflow of trauma patients. Trauma patients because of mass casualty incidents, which have happened over the last week, many of them related to the so-called, non-UN, aid distribution points, or to looting around other food trucks which get into Gaza. So, people either die or get seriously injured because of the lack of food. No one should get injured or die because of a lack of food. So, there's three big requests: Gaza needs more food. Gaza needs fuel, and Gaza need medical supplies.”
14. Various shots, injured people arriving for treatment
15. Wide shot, ambulance reversing out of the field hospital
Al-Shifa hospital is operating at minimum capacity and has been forced to reduce services to preserve fuel for critical care.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ibrahim, Patient:
“Al-Shifa is in a bad situation, God help those who are inside, they can barely handle the heat inside, and they are also in huge numbers, may God help the doctors and assist them, they are running from one patient to another having no idea where to go, there are too many people inside for the doctors to handle, and you have those who are dying from the lack of medications.”
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Dr Abdul Mahdi Al-Khawaja. Orthopaedic Specialist, PANZMA Emergency Medical Team:
“The staff are completely exhausted. The injuries we receive are a combination of multiple injuries: head and neck injuries, bone injuries, abdominal injuries. The medical teams work together to save a patient's life. We receive approximately 100-150 patients per hour. Operations are running 24 hours a day. Some people die on the operating table. Others die on the floor of the emergency room. Most injuries require medical intervention. Most injuries require medical supplies. As an orthopaedic specialist, those supplies aren't available. External fixators don't even hold plates in place. The metal wires used to stabilize bones aren't available.”
One operating theatre is down, dialysis sessions have been cut from 3 to 2 days per week per patient, oxygen plant has stopped, forcing reliance on cylinders.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Dr Mohamad Abu Sulmeyeh, Director, Al-Shifa Medical Complex:
“We are facing great difficulty in obtaining the fuel needed to start the generators to have the hospital running and we’ve shut down the dialysis unit. We are now using small generators to keep the intensive care unit and operating rooms running, and this of course exacerbates the patients' conditions. Patients with kidney failure are suffering greatly. There is a significant shortage of heart disease supplies and patients who need cardiac catheterization.”
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Dr Mohamad Abu Sulmeyeh, Director, Al-Shifa Medical Complex:
“Cancer patients are suffering greatly. There is no chemotherapy or radiotherapy. There is nothing there today. The health situation in the Gaza Strip and the health system are suffering greatly.”
The hospital is overwhelmed and severely under-resourced. Beds are full, and patients are once again being treated on the floor.
SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Richard Peeperkorn, WHO Representative, Occupied Palestinian Territory:
“What we notice here in the field hospitals, similar to what we saw in Shifa Hospital this morning, we see an overflow of trauma patients. Trauma patients because of mass casualty incidents, which have happened over the last week, many of them related to the so-called, non-UN, aid distribution points, or to looting around other food trucks which get into Gaza. So, people either die or get seriously injured because of the lack of food. No one should get injured or die because of a lack of food. So, there's three big requests: Gaza needs more food. Gaza needs fuel, and Gaza need medical supplies.”
Field hospitals are also overwhelmed, especially due influx of injuries arriving from food distribution sites.
