ActionAid International: Most of our surgery is done under headlights. There is no electricity at all

Press release.

Doctors at Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza are once again delivering babies and saving lives against the odds amid incredibly challenging conditions after a siege of the facility ended. 

For more than 20 days in December, no one was able to enter or leave the hospital, which is run by ActionAid’s partner Al-Awda, after it was surrounded by snipers. All services were stopped as 170 people trapped inside – staff, patients and their relatives – fought to survive on increasingly dwindling food and water supplies.

Dr Adnan Radi, head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Al-Awda Hospital, said that six healthcare workers died in the final days of the siege, while pregnant women were killed while attempting to access the hospital.

Following the end of the siege, doctors at Al-Awda have once again resumed treating patients despite experiencing a severe shortage of medical supplies, fuel, food and water, which makes their work almost impossible. As one of only four hospitals partially functioning in the north of Gaza – and the sole facility able to provide maternity services in the north – it is a lifeline for thousands of desperate people and particularly pregnant women in the region. On Sunday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said it had called off a planned mission to bring medical supplies to Al-Awda and other hospitals in the north for the fourth time after failing to receive safety guarantees. It has now been almost two weeks since the agency was last able to reach northern Gaza. 

In his voicenote, Dr Radi spoke about the huge challenges facing staff working at the hospital. Dr Radi said: “We are facing many obstacles... The first is the safety of the hospital and the team in the hospital.

“There are severe shortages of specialists and consultants, as most of the consultants and specialists of obstetrics and gynecology evacuated to Rafah and Khan Younis. Anti-D, Clexane, antibiotics and most emergency drugs in obstetrics are not available in the hospital.

“Most of our surgery is done under headlights. There is no electricity at all.

“Al-Awda Hospital is the only hospital which is still providing maternity services in the north.

Riham Jafari, Advocacy and Communications Coordinator at ActionAid Palestine said: “It is incredible to see that Al-Awda hospital is once again able to provide desperately needed life-saving care to pregnant women and patients in the north of Gaza. This is purely down to the heroic bravery and selflessness of staff at the hospital who continue to work despite immense danger to themselves, and amid harrowing conditions.

“It is horrific to think that, despite the best efforts of staff, women are having to give birth without crucial drugs and painkillers. No woman should ever be denied their fundamental right to adequate maternity care, yet as this crisis enters its fourth month, this is the reality for the estimated 180 women giving birth in Gaza every single day.

"Life-saving aid must be allowed to reach Al-Awda and other hospitals in the north safely and quickly, yet if the bombs keep falling this will amount to little more than a sticking plaster. We will not stop calling for a permanent and immediate ceasefire, to stop the senseless killing of civilians, allow vital aid to enter at scale and save Gaza’s healthcare system from total collapse."