The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
A glimmer of good news for Gazans as health centre reopens in Khan Younis
A gimmer of good news emerged from Gaza on Tuesday as patients returned to at a newly reopened UN health centre in Khan Younis, six months after it was severely damaged and forced to close by heavy fighting, the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) said.
The UNRWA Japanese Health Center in Khan Younis offers primary healthcare services and houses a pharmacy and medical staff who had previously fled as fighting and Israeli tanks rolled through the streets outside.
Now rehabilitated, the clinic can respond to the needs of thousands of displaced people who have returned to Khan Younis seeking shelter. There are no other health facilities in this part of the city, UNRWA Senior Communications Officer Louise Wateridge said.
“The staff we have spoken to today were here on the last day this clinic was open, which was on 21 January this year and they tell us how the facility was surrounded by tanks and bombardment, a lot of shooting,” Ms. Wateridge explained. “They had to immediately flee not only the clinic but also the area with their families…People in Gaza desperately need healthcare, but only a fraction of UNRWA health centres are operational, due to the ongoing military operations and damage and destruction of UNRWA facilities.”
On its first day back up and running, 33 medical staff reported for duty at the centre and supported more than 900 patients, Ms. Wateridge said.
Among the medical staff at the centre, lab technician Abou described the trauma of having to flee with other Gazans in January as Israeli tanks approached. “I have been working in the Japanese clinic for 20 years…I was in the clinic until the last day. I went through the very bitter and very difficult experience of displacement. Our spirits lifted after we heard that the Japanese clinic is functioning again; sick people feel relieved.”
Today, the centre offers pre and post-natal care and blood tests, treatment for non-communicable diseases and provision of critical outpatient treatment, after the UN agency led efforts to clear broken masonry, glass and bullets from the facility.
Like many UNRWA health facilities, the Japanese health centre operates double-shift rotations to manage the high influx of patients from 8am to 5pm. But referrals to UNRWA-contracted hospitals have become increasingly complex owing to a shortage of electricity and a lack of supplies, said Ms. Wateridge. Today, the agency has 100 temporary medical points and eight out of 26 functional health centres.
Mental health support
As of 26 June, the UN agency provided mental health and psychosocial support services in Gaza’s Middle and Khan Younis areas with teams of psychiatrists and supervisors to assist special cases referred from health centres and shelters.
In total, UNRWA teams have responded to 626 cases in health centres and at medical points through individual consultations, offering awareness sessions and support for cases of gender-based violence. The UN agency’s staff also provided medical care for 391 post-natal and pregnant women at high risk.
Insufficient capacity
Across Gaza, hospitals and health care in general remains completely overwhelmed, after nine months of heavy Israeli bombardment, sparked by Hamas-led terror attacks on multiple locations in southern Israel, in which some 1,250 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage.
According to the UN health agency, total capacity at the six partially functional hospitals in southern Gaza - including three in Deir Al Balah and three in Khan Younis – is just 1,334 beds.
Out of 11 field hospitals in the Gaza Strip, three have had to temporarily shut down and four are only partially functioning, “due to the hostilities in Rafah and reduced access”, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
Regarding the hospital infrastructure, “the level of destruction is such that it is difficult to even imagine how much time will it take [to rebuild] once the war is over,” WHO spokesperson Tarik Jašarević told journalists in Geneva on Tuesday.
Tedros slams evacuations
“There’s really no safe corner in Gaza,” insisted the Director-General of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warning in an online post that the latest reports of evacuation orders in Gaza City “will further impede delivery of very limited lifesaving care”.
“Al-Ahli and Patient Friendly hospitals are out of service; patients either self-evacuated, were given early discharge or referred to Kamal Adwan and Indonesian hospitals, which are suffering shortage of fuel, beds and trauma medical supplies,” the WHO chief continued.
“Indonesian Hospital is triple over its capacity. Al-Helou Hospital is within the blocks of the evacuation order but continues to be partially functional. As-Sahaba and Al-Shifa hospitals are in close proximity to the areas under evacuation order but remain functional so far. Six medical points and two primary health care centers are also within the evacuation zones.”
ends
STORY: Gaza health clinic reopens – UNRWA
TRT: 2:46”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ARABIC / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 09 JULY 2024 Gaza, OPT
1. Exterior wide shot: Exterior shot of the Japanese Health Center in Gaza with UN vehicles.
2. Medium shot: Japanese Health Center from outside.
3. Medium shot: UNRWA staff in a meeting inside the Japanese Health Center.
4. Medium shot: UNRWA staff inside the clinic talking.
5. Close-up shot: UNRWA employee talking.
6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) – Dr. Mohamed, a General Practitioner at the centre: “We started working in the Japanese clinic since the start of the emergency period, and we continued to provide our humanitarian and health services during the emergency period until the displacement in late January. Afterwards we moved to the Mawasi area, where we faced many problems and challenges. After the return of the displaced to the areas surrounding the Japanese clinic, we prepared the clinic, it was like a dream to return to our workplaces which we consider as our home.”
7. Medium shots: patients inside the Japanese Health Center.
8. Close-up: employee UNRWA inside the clinic helping patients.
9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) – Abou Omar, lab technician: “I have been working in the Japanese clinic for 20 years. I went through very difficult conditions; I was in the clinic until the last day. Approximately until 21 January, I went through the very bitter and very difficult experience of displacement.”
10. Medium shots: patients and staff inside the Japanese Health Center.
11. Sign for pharmacy written in Arabic.
12. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) – Abou Omar, lab technician: “Our spirits lifted after we heard that the Japanese clinic is functioning again. My colleagues, the doctors and I were so happy. To be honest, even sick people feel relieved.”
13. Medium shots: patients and staff.
14. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) – Itaf, midwife: “I have been working in the Japanese clinic since 2008. I continued my work in the clinic even during the war until we had to evacuate the clinic and were displaced from the Japanese clinic of course from my house. The displacement was to more than one place, we were displaced many times. The displacement period was very, very, very difficult, so we were exposed to many situations and thanks God.”
15. Close-up: sign for the pharmacy written in Arabic.
16. Medium shots: patients and staff.
-Ends-
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk has called on the Georgian authorities to respect and protect the rights to freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly following several nights of protests that were marred by violence, and dispersed using disproportionate, and in some cases unnecessary, force by the police in the capital, Tbilisi.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said today he was extremely concerned about the recent escalation in hostilities in northwest Syria, which further compounds the suffering endured by millions of civilians.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , WHO , OCHA
Syria escalation: Civilians face deadly attacks, health care in distress and aid access compromised
The ongoing escalation of violence in northwest Syria linked to the wider conflict in Gaza and Lebanon has left civilians dead and injured, hospitals “overwhelmed” and attacks on healthcare on the rise, the UN warned on Tuesday.
2
1
4
Press Conferences , Edited News | OCHA
Multiple unending conflicts, climate change and a glaring disregard for long-established international humanitarian law are set to leave a staggering 305 million people in need of lifesaving assistance next year, the UN’s top aid official warned on Wednesday.
Embargo Wednesday, 4 December 2024 at 0600 CET / 0000 ET
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
The UN Rights Office on Friday warned about the plight of civilians in Ukraine after further attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure.
1
1
1
Edited News | ITU
An international panel has been set up to protect undersea communications cables that are crucial for international trade and security, the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU) said on Friday. The creation of the International Advisory Body for Submarine Cable Resilience comes amid an ongoing investigation into the severing of two fibre optic cables in the Baltic Sea, in less than 24 hours between 17 and 18 November.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | ITU
An estimated 5.5 billion people have access to the internet in 2024, an increase of 227 million people based on revised estimates for 2023, the UN specialized agency for telecommunications, ITU, said on Wednesday.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | UNAIDS
Launch of World AIDS Day Report 2024—Take The Rights Path
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
A joint report issued this morning by the UN Human Rights Office and the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) paints a disturbing picture of the media landscape in the country since the Taliban takeover. UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk says.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN human rights chief Volker Türk lent his weight to growing ceasefire calls in Lebanon on Tuesday, amid reports that the senior Israeli cabinet members were due to meet on a deal to end more than a year of conflict with Hezbollah militants, sparked by the war in Gaza
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UNHCR , WHO
The past two months of intensifying Israeli bombardment in Lebanon have been the “deadliest and most devastating” in decades as communities uprooted from the front line have continued to flee across the border to Syria, UN humanitarians said on Friday.
2
1
3
Edited News | UNOG
“State of Silence”: Diego Luna brings the fight to protect the press to the UN in Geneva
Mexican actor, producer and director Diego Luna has brought his fight to protect journalists all the way to the United Nations, in Geneva. Together with documentary director Santiago Masa, he is putting a spotlight on the silencing of investigative journalism in his country, and on the incredibly high price that many journalist have to pay in pursuit of truth.