Nasser Hospital

Not to be confused with Al Nasr Hospital.
Nasser Medical Complex
Geography
LocationKhan Yunis, Gaza Strip
Organisation
Fundinggovernmental
History
Opened1960

The Nasser Hospital[a] (Nasser Medical Complex[1]) is the main hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.

During the Egyptian occupation of the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian authorities began work on the Nasser Hospital in 1957, on the site of a quarantine and febrile disease hospital originally established in army barracks by the British Mandate government in the 1940s.[2] The hospital opened its doors in 1960, and was named after Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser.

In 1972 the hospital was closed for construction to double its capacity from 112 beds. The hospital reopened in February 1974. In December 1984, the Israeli authorities closed down the hospital's orthopedic department, saying that it was contaminated, and transferred its activities to Al-Shifa Hospital.[3]

Amid the spiralling humanitarian crisis as Israeli forces move into southern Gaza Strip during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war the head of the plastic surgery and burns unit, Dr Ahmed Moghrabi, in Khan Yunis's only remaining health facility, begged for the world's help as hunger and disease spread: “Please stop this genocide against us. Stop this war. Please, please, I beg you.”[4]

Notes

  1. ^ Note: "Nasser" (Arabic: ناص) and "Nasr" (Arabic: نصر) are close, but different words, sometimes confused in press in the names of hospitals, e.g., here.

See also

References

  1. ^ "The Reality of Hospitals in the Gaza Strip: Struggling with Collapse Amidst Ongoing Aggression". World Today News. October 20, 2023.
  2. ^ Husseini, Rafiq; Barnea, Tamara (2002). Separate and Cooperate, Cooperate and Separate: The Disengagement of the Palestine Health Care System from Israel and Its Emergence as an Independent System. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0-275-97583-5.
  3. ^ Palestine Red Crescent Society (1987). "Health Conditions of the Arab Population in the Occupied Arab Territories, including Palestine". United Nations. Retrieved 29 October 2023.
  4. ^ ""Please Stop This War Against Us": Gaza Doctor Begs for World's Help as Hunger & Disease Spread". December 11, 2023.