Dialysis patients evacuated from Rafah hospital to nearby Khan Younis

(10 May 2024)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Khan Younis, Gaza Strip - 09 May 2024
1. Various of dialysis patients receiving haemodialysis treatment
2. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ibrahim Abu Hashem, dialysis patient:
“We were very worried the day the Israelis entered, controlled the hospital, and we had to evacuate. And so we started to worry about that, and that happened, and we think where to go. But thank God, Nasser Hospital prepared and set things up and that eased our emotional well-being.”
3. Various of Abu Hashem receiving haemodialysis treatment
4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Dr. Atef al-Hout, Nasser hospital’s director:
"Today, the service has stopped at Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital. The dialysis service has stopped completely. The result is that patients have no place for dialysis. As everyone knows, the dialysis building was completely burned and cannot be restored in a short time. So we were forced to create a dialysis department with the existing capabilities, using an old desalination plant, repairing it, and re-operating it as much as possible, for twenty-five dialysis machines in Nasser Hospital."
5. Various of dialysis patients receiving haemodialysis treatment
6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Dr. Atef al-Hout, Nasser hospital’s director:
"We hope, God willing, that by Sunday morning we will be operating at full capacity with 25 devices. Is this number enough? Absolutely not. Certainly, for 600 patients we would need at least 45 dialysis machines. But the conditions don’t allow us to have more.."
7. Various of dialysis patients receiving haemodialysis treatment
STORYLINE:
Dialysis patients evacuated from one of Rafah’s main hospitals have been moved to the Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, where Israeli ground troops withdrew a month ago.
Patients and staff at the Abou Youssef al-Najjar Hospital were forced to evacuate Wednesday as Israel’s operation in Rafah intensified. The hospital was one of the key medical centres receiving the wounded in Israeli strikes in the southern Gaza city.
Patients like Ibrahim Abu Hashem were relieved.
“We were very worried the day the Israelis entered, controlled the hospital, and we had to evacuate. And so we started to worry about where we can go,” he told The Associated Press as he underwent dialysis. “But thank god, Nasser Hospital prepared and set things up and that eased our emotional well-being.”
But Nasser Hospital is in bad shape after Israeli forces raided the medical centre in recent months, and hundreds of bodies were found buried outside the Khan Younis Hospital.
Dr. Atef al-Hout, the hospital’s director, said the dialysis unit was “completely burned down” during the raid and fighting, and that a new one had to be quickly set up by fixing damaged and older machines to have 25 machines for some 600 patients.
“Is this enough? Absolutely not,” he told the AP at his office. “Certainly, for 600 patients we would need at least 45 dialysis machines but the conditions don’t allow us to have more.”
Video shot for AP by Mohammad Jahjouh and produced by Wafaa Shurafa
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