NASSER HOSPITAL

Nasser Hospital is the last remaining partially functional Ministry of Health hospital in southern Gaza. Its maternity wards and intensive care units for children and newborns are among the few that remain functional in the south. Our teams at Nasser provide support to various units in the facility, including the following:

• Trauma, orthopedic, and burn units
• Operating theaters
• Inpatient therapeutic feeding center for children with malnutrition
• Pediatrics department, including pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and neonatal intensive care unit (NICU)
• Emergency room for pediatric and maternal care
• Outpatient maternity and specialist care
• Mental health care
• Health promotion activities

We recently worked to boost hygiene through infection prevention and control measures and by improving patient flows in the overcrowded facility.  

KHAN YOUNIS PRIMARY HEALTH CARE CENTER

The Khan Younis primary health care center is an MSF facility with 24/7 stabilization beds. Services at the facility include: outpatient consultations; vaccination; sexual and reproductive health care; care for non-communicable diseases; wound care; physiotherapy; mental health care; health promotion; and malnutrition care including screening for children under 5 as well as pregnant and breastfeeding women and girls, and an outpatient therapeutic feeding center.

AL-ATTAR PRIMARY HEALTH CARE CENTER

Teams at this MSF facility provide general and pediatric consultations for acute and chronic conditions, in addition to emergency and wound care; vaccination; pre- and postnatal care; family planning; psychosocial and mental health care; health promotion; and malnutrition care. Our malnutrition activities at Al-Attar include screening and outpatient treatment for severe and moderate cases, and a program for children under 6 months old. This facility also has a 24-hour emergency service to stabilize and refer patients.

AL-MAWASI PRIMARY HEALTH CARE CLINIC

After a brief suspension of activities due to the advancement of Israeli troops in the Al-Mawasi area in March 2025, MSF teams have returned to the clinic. Our teams there provide outpatient services including general and pediatric consultations for acute and chronic conditions, as well as vaccination; wound care; physiotherapy; minor surgery; mental health care; health promotion; reproductive health care including pre- and postnatal care as well as family planning; and malnutrition screening and outpatient treatment. The clinic also has a 24/7 emergency room to stabilize and refer patients.

AL-AQSA HOSPITAL

Our teams at Al-Aqsa Hospital focus mainly on supporting the emergency department and wound care clinic. We provide hands-on support during mass casualty incidents and daily activities, including training for ER medical staff and ensuring adherence to infection prevention and control measures and medical protocols.

MSF relocated the wound care clinic to the Ministry of Health’s Deir al-Balah primary health care center. The wound care team now conducts malnutrition screenings of children under 5 years old, as well as referrals.  

AL-ZAWAIDA FIELD HOSPITAL

MSF opened Al-Zawaida Field Hospital in collaboration with the Ministry of Health to help fill the gaps following the destruction of Gaza’s health system. The facility has an emergency department, inpatient and outpatient departments, and operating theaters for orthopedic, vascular, general, and plastic surgery. Since late June, the field hospital has expanded to 110 beds and opened a third operating theater as a result of high needs. Still, the bed occupancy rate remains consistently above 100 percent. The hospital has been receiving evacuees from Gaza City since September 2025. 

DEIR AL-BALAH FIELD HOSPITAL

After relocating from Nasser Hospital, MSF teams moved some services to our field hospital in Deir al-Balah to run its burns and orthopedic wards. Due to the large number of Palestinians moving south, we expanded bed capacity; the field hospital now has 91 inpatient beds, including up to 26 for burns. We also provide outpatient services for wound dressing and physiotherapy, and have mental health and social work teams working in both the inpatient and outpatient departments. 

MSF CLINIC

Israeli forces’ offensive in Gaza City in September 2025 forced us to suspend hands-on activities at the MSF clinic. Our teams are currently monitoring and assessing the situation in northern Gaza to determine whether conditions allow for the safe resumption of activities. Prior to the suspension, our teams at the MSF clinic provided the following services: primary health care, including general consultations; screening for non-communicable diseases and malnutrition; wound care; physiotherapy; sexual and reproductive health care including follow-up for pre- and postnatal care, gynecological consultations, and family planning; and therapeutic nutrition care for children under 5 and pregnant and breastfeeding women.

AL-SHIFA HOSPITAL

Al-Shifa is the Ministry of Health’s main secondary care facility, however its pre-war capacity has been reduced drastically, with a reported bed occupancy of 250 percent. To help meet the needs, MSF opened a 40-bed inpatient department in the maternity building, with an intermediate operating theater for post-operative trauma care and advanced wound management.  

Due to Israel's latest offensive in Gaza City, MSF was forced to suspend these activities, but we are still supporting Al-Shifa hospital through incentives. 

AL-HELOU MATERNITY HOSPITAL

Maternity services at Al-Shifa Hospital were relocated to Al-Helou Maternity Hospital, where MSF teams support the emergency room, inpatient department, delivery rooms, operating theaters, and NICU, as well as provide infection prevention and control, mental health care, and health promotion.

Due to Israel's latest offensive in Gaza City in September 2025, MSF was forced to suspend hands-on activities at Al-Helou, but we continue to support the hospital through incentives and supplies, including much-needed fuel and telecommunications. 

Israeli forces’ have decimated Gaza’s water network. Water treatment plants and other water infrastructure have been attacked, damaged, and destroyed. Gaza has no independent means of producing drinkable water, as groundwater is too salty or contaminated by sewage and agricultural chemicals to be fit for human consumption.

Israeli authorities have also blocked the entry of key water production supplies. For example, since June 2024, less than a third of MSF’s requests to bring in desalination supplies have been approved; the rest were refused or remain pending. Some authorization requests for items like water pumps, spare parts, and water tanks have been pending for months. Lack of water is life-threatening and can contribute to health issues like diarrhea, jaundice, and scabies—all of which are on the rise in Gaza. Dehydration can be lethal and also makes it harder to recover from other diseases. 

This is why water and sanitation is a significant part of MSF’s response in Gaza. We carry out water trucking activities, establish distribution points, and provide technical support to desalination plants. Our teams distributed more than 500,000 gallons of water per day in August 2025, which covers the bare minimum needs for over 74,000 people.  

MSF’s water production and distribution decreased in September due to Israeli forces’ incursion in Gaza City. On September 15, Israeli forces fired upon a clearly identified MSF water truck in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood. We continue to produce and distribute water in the small areas that are still accessible in the central and southern Strip. Our teams also work in partnership with PARC (the Agriculture Development Association) to provide sanitation support to a camp hosting 400 people with disabilities and camp shelters in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis.

Israel’s systematic deprivation of aid—including food, water, electricity, and medical supplies—has led to preventable deaths, malnutrition, and profound trauma; and has manufactured a situation of famine in Gaza. At the same time, it has prevented humanitarian organizations from responding to the needs at scale, severely inhibiting the flow of supplies needed to operate.

Prior to the total siege launched on March 2, MSF provided over 636 tons of logistic and medical equipment from our international supply centers—as much as 30 planes or 130 trucks full. However, some supplies that are critical to our operations and the security of our staff have been difficult to transport into Gaza. These include generators, desalination stations and motor pumps, oxygen concentrators, vehicles, and equipment for communication.  

Since the latest ceasefire was announced in October, the flow of everyday goods—such as fruits, vegetables, and cooking gas—has improved slightly, but these remain unaffordable for most people in Gaza, many of whom have lost their homes, livelihoods, and savings. However, as of October 14, MSF has not observed a significant improvement in the entry of medical supplies. Dual-use items such as solar panels and other logistical equipment are still barred from entering the Strip. Several MSF cargo shipments from Egypt and Jordan have been delayed due to these restrictions.  

Humanitarian aid must be allowed to immediately flow freely and safely at scale across Gaza, including the entry of critical equipment needed to rebuild essential services and medical facilities. 

Many patients require care for war wounds, crush injuries, and burns sustained in bombings and other attacks by Israeli forces. MSF teams have seen an increase in the number of patients with burn injuries—most of them children. Many of these children were burned by bomb blasts; others by boiling water or fuel used for cooking or heating in makeshift shelters.  

Infections resulting from poorly treated wounds are a growing concern, driven by the difficulty wounded people face accessing care and follow-up, shortages of supplies, and lack of access to hygiene. There is also high risk of infectious diseases including diarrhea, acute respiratory infections, skin infections, and hepatitis due to overcrowding and poor hygienic conditions in camps where displaced people are sheltering, and shortages of medicines and medical supplies.

On August 22, 2025, the United Nations-coordinated Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system officially declared famine in Gaza governorate, in the north of the Gaza Strip, indicating a severe risk of malnutrition with children being the most vulnerable. In hospitals and clinics, both patients and staff are fighting to survive on what limited food is available, often going days at a time without eating. In July, one in four young children and pregnant women screened at MSF clinics were malnourished, and the number of patients with acute malnutrition reached an all-time high at two MSF facilities. 

Even before the current war started, many years of instability had already taken a toll on the physical and mental health of Gaza’s children, leaving many with life-changing injuries, amputated limbs, and the trauma of losing parents and other loved ones along with their homes and schools. Children are also especially vulnerable to various health risks arising from the lack proper access to water, food, and warm shelter.

Pregnant women in Gaza have been forced to navigate severe obstacles to reach medical facilities for prenatal care or delivery, including traveling dangerous routes amid fighting and without safe transportation, which can delay access to care and increase the risk of complications. Those able to reach a hospital often find them without capacity, and end up giving birth in deplorable conditions in plastic tents or public spaces; others must return to their makeshift shelters mere hours after undergoing cesarean sections. To date, MSF teams have assisted more than 16,000 deliveries in Gaza.

Throughout the war, our teams operated under a severe shortage of medical supplies such as anesthetics, pediatric antibiotics, and medicines for chronic conditions like epilepsy, hypertension, and diabetes as a result of the blockade. Staff have been forced to ration medications and even turn some patients away because they don’t have the proper tools to treat them.    

As a medical organization, MSF’s most urgent needs are for medical equipment and supporting items to ensure Palestinians have access to lifesaving and critical care. Since the October 2025 ceasefire, our priorities are to increase bed capacity until existing health facilities can resume normal operations. We need supplies classified by Israeli authorities as “dual-use” and therefore blocked from entering. These include essential items to maintain hygienic and sterile conditions and support our logistics, including nine desalination units, 2,250 latrines, and critical spare parts to repair MSF vehicles, generators, medical equipment, and washing machines.