Israel hampers Gaza field hospitals by providing insufficient sites

In November, Italy announced that it would establish a field hospital in Gaza and dispatched a fact-finding mission to Rafah to evaluate the situation on the ground, a regional source said.

“The plot given by the Israelis was too small for a field hospital and it was being secured by Hamas,” the source said. Italy asked for an alternative location. But the second plot Israel suggested, which was to the west and closer to the sea, “was even smaller” the source added, so the entire plan was abandoned.

In late November, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Turkey was deploying eight field hospitals to Egypt to serve wounded Palestinians, in coordination with Egyptian and Israeli authorities. Turkey and Israel then agreed one of those field hospitals could be moved into Gaza itself, according to a second regional source.

But as Ankara moved to establish the hospital on the outskirts of Rafah near the Gush Katif road and Helmi Saqr Sultan Mosque, Turkish officials realised that the previously empty plot was now occupied by displaced Palestinians.

“It is obvious that those Palestinians had been pushed to those areas by Israel to disrupt the construction of the field hospital,” the second source said. “Displaced Palestinians can’t build tents anywhere, the Israelis constantly deliver messages ordering them to gather them in certain areas,” the source added.