June 2022 In May, Israeli forces attacked St Joseph Hospital in East Jerusalem during the funeral of renowned Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. The pallbearers were beaten, with police firing tear gas grenades, sound bombs and rubber bullets in the grounds of the hospital. Armed police entered the hospital building causing intimidation of...

                                                                                                                                                                               Click to download  Throughout the year, WHO continued to document the impact of barriers to health access on the Palestinian people in Gaza. Below are four of the cases documented during 2022: January Saleem, a 16-year-old child with leukaemia, dies after barriers to hospital admission Saleem An-Nawati was 16 years old from Gaza and had acute...

Saleem An-Nawati was 16 years old from Gaza and had acute leukaemia diagnosed in late 2021. He was initially referred for an appointment at An-Najah University Hospital in Nablus in the West Bank on 28 November 2021, but he received no definitive response to his permit application in time for his appointment. Saleem was delayed a permit to reach...

Nurse Ibrahim checks on a patient in the ICU, European Gaza Hospital “Seeing someone so young attempt to take their own life is heart-breaking. Though we work in a tough environment, witnessing such suffering never gets easy. Sadly, this is not our first such case,” says Ibrahim, ICU Nurse at the European Gaza Hospital. Recently, he has been...

Musaab is 21 years old and in his third year of study at university in Nablus, in the north of the West Bank. In the summer of 2022, Musaab was diagnosed with a cancer called a synovial sarcoma in his left ankle. To confirm his diagnosis and to guide the best approach to his treatment, he was referred to Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem for...

10 January 2023 – Khetam, a mother of 2, has only brought one of her daughters to the primary health centre, though both are sick and in need of medical attention.  Her younger daughter has a very high fever and weakness. Khetam has had to prioritize her treatment today.  Khetam and her daughter at the Jabaliya Health Centre, Gaza Strip “If I brought...

13 November 2022 – Dr Naseem reached home after a long shift at the hospital, ready to rest and recharge. He had been looking forward to spending time with his children but found it hard to shake off his worries and disengage his mind. The air felt heavy. The news about growing tensions in Gaza Strip seemed impossible to escape. WhatsApp groups...

Gaza, 8 November 2022 – Gaza’s first emergency operation centre (EOC), established by WHO under the leadership of the Gaza Ministry of Health, was inaugurated today. The inauguration was attended by Dr Yousef Abu-Al Rish, Gaza’s Deputy Minister of Health and Dr Rik Peeperkorn, WHO Representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, along with health...

2 November 2022 – In Gaza Strip, swift and timely funding from the WHO Contingency Fund for Emergencies is helping WHO close critical gaps in needs and enhance emergency response by building up on previous efforts to bolster preparedness. Recently, 2 sizable shipments of medicines and medical supplies were provided to the Ministry of Health to...

Jerusalem, 21 October 2022 - WHO in the occupied Palestinian territory, in cooperation with the Ministry of Health, conducted two workshops on 11 and 19 October on findings of an assessment of barriers to accessing noncommunicable disease (NCD) services during the COVID-19 pandemic, focused on the specific impact on rural and semi-rural...