Save the lives of Injured in the Gaza Strip - OPT

Gaza Strip during the reporting period from 18 May 2021 until 14 Sep. 2021, experienced aggressive Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip on 10 May 2021 which lasted for 11 continues days. This came on top of all emergencies that Gaza strip went through starting from more than 15 years of imposed pro-longed blockade, the deterioration of the socio-economic situation, and the very high rates of unemployment poverty, and at the end; the transmission of COVID19 within a community that already suffer fragile health system.

The Israeli aggression resulted in having more than 253 martyrs including (66 children, 39 women, and 17 elderly), and more than 1948 injuries, where 15,000 residential units have been fully or partially destroyed, and resulted in having more than 120,000 Internal Displaced People, who flee to UNRWA schools seeking for shelters.

Al Awda hospital as the main and largest facility to UHWC triggered the state of emergency and worked 24/7 to receive the injured cases during the aggression, where the hospital received 60 injured people during the aggression including (21 men, 19 women, and 20 children). Meanwhile, the beneficiaries of this intervention from Al Awda Hospital during the reporting period were 5189 who benefited from emergency services provided at Al Awda Hospital including (2123) emergency services at the ER department, urgent surgical operations (1719), and maternity services including (946 Normal Delivery, and 401 Cesarean Section).

This intervention came on a time of an urgent need to intervene to provide the needed urgent services to the population, in light of announcing the governmental hospital the emergency state and stopping all elective surgeries and only the operating theaters were conducting the emergency surgeries. So, Al Awda Hospital despite of the emergency state triggered, continue providing emergency services and maternity services in addition to some outpatient services consultations.

The provision of essential services required imposing safety measures and precaution procedures, and the beneficiaries of the intervention during this reporting period were are follows:

-          (2123) beneficiaries from the Emergency department.

-          (1347) beneficiaries from the maternity department including (946 Normal Delivery, and 401 CS)

-          (1719) beneficiaries from the surgical department.

Case Study :

Fourteen years old S. D. girl who lives in the northern area of Gaza Strip with 4 siblings, and her father is unemployed and is high in debt due to the deteriorating economic situation.

She was suffering from complication in her ear, and didn’t know the reason behind it. She visited several doctors but they were only able to provide her with pain killers to relieve the pain. And due to this she became immune to these types of pain killers.

S.D. was unable to visit any medical specialist due to her father being unemployed since he was unable to pay the fees of the consultation, and she suffers sever pain during the last aggression, but due to stopping the Out-patient clinics for a while during the 11th day, her conditions became worse by time.

The pain in her ear affected her social life dramatically, since due to her poor hearing (due to untreated infection), she was unable to communicate with people easily.

This also affected her psychological state, and made her depressed and anxious due to the lake of sleep, and her inability to eat without pain.

She visited Al Awda hospital – Northern area of Gaza Strip and she was listed for urgent surgical intervention. Many thanks to GlobalGiving for supporting partially her surgical intervention within the project “Save the lives of Injured in the Gaza Strip - OPT project “

After the operation was conducted successfully, S. D. stated, “The operation has improved my life drastically, now I feel more confident when leaving the house, I communicate with people more effectively, and I can now sleep like how I used to”.