The Nasser Hospital^{[lower-alpha 1]} (Nasser Medical Complex) is the main hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.

History

During the Egyptian occupation of the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian authorities began work on the Nasser Hospital in 1957, on the site of a quarantine and febrile disease hospital originally established in army barracks by the British Mandate government in the 1940s.^[1] The hospital opened its doors in 1960, and was named after Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser.

In 1972 the hospital was closed for construction to double its capacity from 112 beds. The hospital reopened in February 1974. In December 1984, the Israeli authorities closed down the hospital's orthopedic department, saying that it was contaminated, and transferred its activities to Al-Shifa Hospital.^[2]

Amid the spiraling humanitarian crisis as Israeli forces move into southern Gaza Strip during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war the head of the plastic surgery and burns unit, Dr Ahmed Moghrabi, in Khan Yunis's only remaining health facility, begged for the world's help as hunger and disease spread: “Please stop this genocide against us. Stop this war. Please, please, I beg you.”^[3]

The hospital was shelled multiple times over a 48-hour period. During the war, it received significant international media coverage due to the murder of a 13-year-old amputee, Donia Abu Mohsen, who had survived a previous Israeli airstrike that had killed her entire family.^[4]

Notes

See also

• List of hospitals in the State of Palestine

References