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STORY: WHO / GAZA HOSPITALS SITUATION
TRT: 09:52
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WHO ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 30 SEPTEMBER 2025, AL-AQSA MARTYRS HOSPITAL, DEIR AL-BALAH, GAZA / 30 SEPTEMBER 2025, NASSER MEDICAL COMPLEX, KHAN YOUNIS, GAZA / 01, 02 OCTOBER 2025, SHIFA MEDICAL COMPLEX, GAZA CITY, GAZA /
30 SEPTEMBER 2025, AL-AQSA MARTYRS HOSPITAL, DEIR AL-BALAH, GAZA
1. Wide shot, hospital
2. Wide shot, within the field hospital
3. Various shots, inside the laboratory, showing aging equipment and minimal supplies such as blood and plasma
4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Elham Salem Muslim, Deputy Head, Blood Bank Department, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital:
“There are shortages in medical supplies, resources, solutions, even the current devices are faulty, therefore we have reverted to our older devices; on the basis that we are working to facilitate the situation and keep the health sector functional.”
5. Various shots, hospital generators
6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Wael Abu Salout, Administrative and Financial Director, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital:
“The need for diesel has become urgent and immense. We need approximately 2,800 to 3,100 litres daily to have the hospital operating for 24 hours.”
7. Med shot, hospital diesel tank
8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Wael Abu Salout, Administrative and Financial Director, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital
“What we receive is enough to have the hospital operating for one day. That means if diesel does not arrive the next day, the hospital's services, intensive care units, and incubators departments, and major operating rooms, will completely stop.”
30 SEPTEMBER 2025, NASSER MEDICAL COMPLEX, KHAN YOUNIS, GAZA
9. Various shots, hospital exterior
10. Various shots, from the laboratory, showing lab techs performing analysis, some blood units, and an empty blood unit refrigerator
11. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Sofia Za'rab, Director, Laboratories and Blood Banks Unit at the Ministry of Health:
“It is a painful situation that has surpassed the challenge of a crisis: it is a catastrophic situation in every sense of the word, especially in blood banks. If we talk about blood banks, we can say that there is a severe shortage of blood bags, a severe shortage of blood transfusion machines that are close to running out of or will run out of within two or three days.”
12. Wide shot, empty blood donation beds
13. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Sofia Za'rab, Director, Laboratories and Blood Banks Unit at the Ministry of Health:
“We cannot find suitable donors for blood donation. Every day we issue a distress call. Every day we go out to shelters using loudspeakers. We call for blood donations, but it is useless because, as you know, potential donors are depleted. Added to this is the widespread famine, poverty, malnutrition, and widespread disease. Furthermore, laboratories are no better off than blood banks, with a severe shortage of solutions, particularly for testing viruses.”
14. Med shot, Sofia looking at an empty refrigerator
15. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Sofia Za'rab, Director, Laboratories and Blood Banks Unit at the Ministry of Health:
“This is a patient who has thalassemia [a blood disorder], for which there is no treatment for him aside from blood units. He came here to us to get blood units, and he’s already setup with a cannula, but am not sure if we will find blood units for him or not. What’s your blood type? It’s AB positive, will thank God this is the type that receives from everyone, hopefully and by God’s will, your blood units will be available, and you will have them, may God bless you with good health.”
16. Close up, canula in Mahmoud’s arm
17. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mahmoud Ali Abdel Rahman Mansour, Thalassemia Patient:
“I come here every two weeks to get a blood unit, and it’s unavailable, therefore I am forced to look around or find a relative that can donate blood, and that is very difficult to find. We are truly struggling to find blood units; therefore, we are kindly asking concerned authorities to provide us with blood units at the very least.”
18. Med shot, patient Mustafa lying on a hospital bed
19. Med shot, showing bandages and tubing on his stomach
20. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hanan Hamdan, Mustafa’s Mother:
“He was injured in a car accident and was admitted to the hospital. After four days of examinations, during the operation, they have discovered that his bladder has a rupture.”
21. Med shot, Hanan soothing her son Mustafa
22. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hanan Hamdan, Mustafa’s Mother:
“People are in hallways, and doctors have told us that you have to leave before he gets infected with something else, and we had to go to the tent. And you know the situation in tents: heat, flies all over the place, and you already know the situation.”
23. Med shot, Hanan soothing her son Mustafa
24. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hanan Hamdan, Mustafa’s Mother:
“We had to get back here to the hospital as the it started leaking urine from the wound itself. By God’s will, good people will help.”
25. Med shot, beds filled with patients
26. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Dr Atef El-Hout, Director, Nasser Medical Complex:
“The situation at Nasser Medical Complex has become almost catastrophic in several aspects. We begin with the first aspect: bed capacity. As everyone knows, Nasser Medical Complex has a bed capacity of 342 beds. Today, we are talking about 850, today, we are talking about 850 patients in the complex's corridors. I'm not talking about 800 beds, I'm talking about patients, because we can't find beds for these patients, so we're forced to place them on mattresses in the hospital's corridors or hallways, which increases the pressure and burden on the complex.”
27. Med shot, lady sitting on the floor.
28. Wide shot, a busy hospital reception area.
29. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Dr Atef El-Hout, Director, Nasser Medical Complex:
“The humanitarian situation of people in refugee camps, in displacement camps, in an unclean environment, it increases infections. It increases the incidence of infections. Yet we cannot provide them with antibiotics. There is a scarcity of many resources. There is a shortage of aesthetic materials. There is a shortage of painkillers. There is a shortage of medical supplies in general within the complex.”
30. Med shot, Emergency Department entrance.
01 OCTOBER 2025, SHIFA MEDICAL COMPLEX, GAZA CITY, GAZA
31. Wide shot, external shot showing damage to the Surgery Building
32. Various shots, quiet Emergency Department, empty corridors and labs,
02 OCTOBER 2025, SHIFA MEDICAL COMPLEX, GAZA CITY, GAZA
33. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, Director General of Al-Shifa Medical Complex:
“Reaching it (Shifa) is extremely hard, the medical teams are doing their best in this very difficult situation, amidst shortages in everything: medical supplies, medicines, fuel, medical staff, and even operating room staff. Therefore, we warn of a real health disaster if Al-Shifa Medical Complex goes out of service. Because there are still hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza City. After this complex goes out of service, there will be tens of thousands of victims whose lives we will not be able to save.”
01 OCTOBER 2025, SHIFA MEDICAL COMPLEX, GAZA CITY, GAZA
34. Various shots, ambulances arriving, injured people being taken into the Emergency Department to be treated by health workers.
The health system in Gaza is on the brink of collapse - what was once the worst is now hellish. Only 14 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain partially functional, according to the WHO’s latest report on trauma and rehabilitation needs in the battered enclave.
Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah is severely overcrowded, facing critical shortages of supplies, equipment, and surgical capacity.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Elham Salem Muslim, Deputy Head, Blood Bank Department, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital:
“There are shortages in medical supplies, resources, solutions, even the current devices are faulty, therefore we have reverted to our older devices; on the basis that we are working to facilitate the situation and keep the health sector functional.”
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Wael Abu Salout, Administrative and Financial Director, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital:
“The need for diesel has become urgent and immense. We need approximately 2,800 to 3,100 litres daily to have the hospital operating for 24 hours.”
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Wael Abu Salout, Administrative and Financial Director, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital
“What we receive is enough to have the hospital operating for one day. That means if diesel does not arrive the next day, the hospital's services, intensive care units, and incubators departments, and major operating rooms, will completely stop.”
Nasser Medical Complex is also overflowing with patients as the south becomes increasingly crowded with people displaced from the north due to the ongoing incursion. Al-Shifa Hospital is minimally functional; most specialists have fled for their safety. An estimated 40 patients and only a small number of health workers remain at the hospital.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Sofia Za'rab, Director, Laboratories and Blood Banks Unit at the Ministry of Health:
“It is a painful situation that has surpassed the challenge of a crisis: it is a catastrophic situation in every sense of the word, especially in blood banks. If we talk about blood banks, we can say that there is a severe shortage of blood bags, a severe shortage of blood transfusion machines that are close to running out of or will run out of within two or three days.”
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Sofia Za'rab, Director, Laboratories and Blood Banks Unit at the Ministry of Health:
“We cannot find suitable donors for blood donation. Every day we issue a distress call. Every day we go out to shelters using loudspeakers. We call for blood donations, but it is useless because, as you know, potential donors are depleted. Added to this is the widespread famine, poverty, malnutrition, and widespread disease. Furthermore, laboratories are no better off than blood banks, with a severe shortage of solutions, particularly for testing viruses.”
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Sofia Za'rab, Director, Laboratories and Blood Banks Unit at the Ministry of Health:
“This is a patient who has thalassemia [a blood disorder], for which there is no treatment for him aside from blood units. He came here to us to get blood units, and he’s already setup with a cannula, but am not sure if we will find blood units for him or not. What’s your blood type? It’s AB positive, will thank God this is the type that receives from everyone, hopefully and by God’s will, your blood units will be available, and you will have them, may God bless you with good health.”
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mahmoud Ali Abdel Rahman Mansour, Thalassemia Patient:
“I come here every two weeks to get a blood unit, and it’s unavailable, therefore I am forced to look around or find a relative that can donate blood, and that is very difficult to find. We are truly struggling to find blood units; therefore, we are kindly asking concerned authorities to provide us with blood units at the very least.”
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hanan Hamdan, Mustafa’s Mother:
“He was injured in a car accident and was admitted to the hospital. After four days of examinations, during the operation, they have discovered that his bladder has a rupture.”
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hanan Hamdan, Mustafa’s Mother:
“People are in hallways, and doctors have told us that you have to leave before he gets infected with something else, and we had to go to the tent. And you know the situation in tents: heat, flies all over the place, and you already know the situation.”
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hanan Hamdan, Mustafa’s Mother:
“We had to get back here to the hospital as the it started leaking urine from the wound itself. By God’s will, good people will help.”
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Dr Atef El-Hout, Director, Nasser Medical Complex:
“The situation at Nasser Medical Complex has become almost catastrophic in several aspects. We begin with the first aspect: bed capacity. As everyone knows, Nasser Medical Complex has a bed capacity of 342 beds. Today, we are talking about 850, today, we are talking about 850 patients in the complex's corridors. I'm not talking about 800 beds, I'm talking about patients, because we can't find beds for these patients, so we're forced to place them on mattresses in the hospital's corridors or hallways, which increases the pressure and burden on the complex.”
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Dr Atef El-Hout, Director, Nasser Medical Complex:
“The humanitarian situation of people in refugee camps, in displacement camps, in an unclean environment, it increases infections. It increases the incidence of infections. Yet we cannot provide them with antibiotics. There is a scarcity of many resources. There is a shortage of aesthetic materials. There is a shortage of painkillers. There is a shortage of medical supplies in general within the complex.”
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, Director General of Al-Shifa Medical Complex:
“Reaching it (Shifa) is extremely hard, the medical teams are doing their best in this very difficult situation, amidst shortages in everything: medical supplies, medicines, fuel, medical staff, and even operating room staff. Therefore, we warn of a real health disaster if Al-Shifa Medical Complex goes out of service. Because there are still hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza City. After this complex goes out of service, there will be tens of thousands of victims whose lives we will not be able to save.”
WHO continues to call for the protection of health care and unhindered access for humanitarian aid.
According to the WHO’s latest report on trauma and rehabilitation needs in Gaza, a quarter of all injuries are potentially life-changing, with an estimated 41,844 people, or 1.9 percent of the population of Gaza now affected. Up to a quarter of those are children.
At the same time, rehabilitation services, like all health services in Gaza, are under enormous strain, with no service fully operational, and a total loss of two thirds of pre-existing services. Remaining services are now augmented by Emergency Medical Teams and partners, but even with this surge support, supplies are constrained, and overall rehabilitation capacity in Gaza remains well below pre-conflict levels.
