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UN PhotoWHO / GAZA NASSER MEDICAL COMPLEX
STORY: WHO / GAZA NASSER MEDICAL COMPLEX
TRT: 08:43
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WHO ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 03 JULY 2025, NASSER MEDICAL COMPLEX, KHAN YOUNIS, GAZA
03 JULY 2025, NASSER MEDICAL COMPLEX, KHAN YOUNIS, GAZA
1 Various shots, hospital working over capacity, patients being treated on beds and the floor, as more patients arrive for treatment
2. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Dr Atef El-Hout, Director, Nasser Medical Complex:
“We receive approximately 150 cases of injury daily at Nasser Medical Complex. Most of these cases arrive from the humanitarian aid distribution areas in Rafah Governorate or even Khan Younis. A total of 270 cases arrived at the Nasser Medical Complex yesterday. The nature of the injuries arriving at Nasser Medical Complex are live bullet wounds, especially to the head, neck, chest, and abdomen. These are the majority of injuries arriving, and most of them require intensive care units, which we already suffer from a shortage of intensive care units or intensive care rooms and beds. Al-Nasser Complex has 12 intensive care beds. We're talking about 51 occupied intensive care units, and there are still seven patients in the emergency room for whom we cannot find beds in the complex.”
Note: These are the non-UN distribution sites.
03 JULY 2025, NASSER MEDICAL COMPLEX, KHAN YOUNIS, GAZA
3. Various shots, WHO team, including head of office Rik Peeperkorn, in discussion with the hospital director and health workers
4. Various shots, Mahmoud Muhammad Sarour, father of injured patient Muhammad, who is lying on a hospital bed
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mahmoud Muhammad Sarour, father of injured patient Muhammad:
“He went with his cousin to go bring aid from Rafah. When they went there, they sat in the square where they distribute the aid, when they were sleeping there, he was shot with an explosive bullet in the neck. My brother called me and told me, that my son was shot, I came in a hurry, they took him to the Red Crescent in Rafah, and from there he was transferred to Al-Nasser Medical Complex, and he was in a critical state, Thank God in any cases, but he now has quadriplegia: nothing moves but his eyes and lips.”
6. Various shots, Mahmoud Muhammad Sarour, father of injured patient Muhammad, talking. Mahmoud, the father, wipes away tears
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mahmoud Muhammad Sarour, father of injured patient Muhammad:
“We hope to God that he gets the chance to travel (be evacuated) outside, we are trying everything to have him travel, we need to find a solution for him, or treatment. Because he’s still a young man, he can’t spend the rest of his life like this; he needs diapers, he needs urine bags, he needs treatments as well, and currently time is not allowing us to do anything. There are no diapers in the country either.”
8. Close up, smartphone showing Muhammad before his injuries
9. Med shot, Mahmoud wiping away tears
10. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Muhammad Sarour, patient:
“My cousin came to me later in the day around 8pm. He said would you like to go with me to Rafah to get aid? I said yes. We went and slept at my uncle’s house, and the next day, we went to Rafah. Suddenly; I told my cousin, if anything happens bring me here. A moment later, my cousin was telling me put my head down. I was about to do it but I was shot. Also someone who was next to me was killed.”
11. Various shots, overcrowded hospital, busy examination halls and makeshift wards, patients waiting in corridors
12. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Dr Atef El-Hout, Director, Nasser Medical Complex:
“The diesel that reaches the complex is drip-fed, meaning we receive enough for two or three days, and then we suffer again. This currently forces us to operate the generators at full capacity in the morning and attempt to ration in the evening or night, meaning we stop some important services in the evening or night so we can secure a portion of this diesel that will last us for a longer period.”
13. Various shots, busy ICU
14. Med shot, meningitis patient Amal lying in a cot
15. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mother of Amal Hani Al-Bayouk:
“My son was getting tired, he had a fever and convulsions. I went to a medical point, and they referred me to Al-Nasser. They said I need to go to Al-Nasser Medical Complex so they can test a sample taken from his back. I went to Al-Nasser in the ambulance, because my son was convulsing. At Al-Nasser they took a sample from his back and it turned out he’s suffering a spinal fever (meningitis)”
16. Close up, meningitis patient Amal lying in a cot
17. Med shot, meningitis patient Amal lying in a cot
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Ahmed al-Farah, Head of Paediatrics, Nasser Medical Complex:
“Five days ago, we noticed increasing case incidence of meningitis. These cases are a bacterial meningitis and viral meningitis. Nearly 20% of them are bacterial and 75% of them are viral. This makes overcrowding in the hospital, because the hospital already is overcrowded by occupied patients from other diseases like asthma, like pneumonia, like diabetes mellitus. So, there is overcrowding. We have two problems here. We have the shortage of treatment for them. We have lack of aciclovir, which is antiviral. We have lack of vancomycin which is antibacterial for meningitis. Also we have lack of methods to differentiate between viral and bacterial (meningitis).”
19. Med shot, busy ICU
20. Med shot, busy ICU with WHO team in the foreground
21. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Richard Peeperkorn, WHO Representative, occupied Palestinian territory:
“Many young adolescents, shot in the head, shot in the neck, shot in the chest, shot in the abdomen. This has to stop. People should not die to get food. People should get food in a normal way. So there's the same request from the hospital team, from all the health workers. First of all, we need access. Access for food. The markets should be flooded with food, with water and WASH (cleaning) products, with medicines and medical supplies, and a regular flow of fuel in order for both food, WASH and hospitals to be able to function. Last but not least, this madness should stop. This cycle of violence, this constant cycle of violence should stop. We need a ceasefire now.”
22. Wide shot, WHO team and hospital medical staff walking through the WHO Field Hospital
23. Wide shot, inside of a busy Field Hospital ward
Nasser Medical Complex is functioning as a large-scale trauma ward, stretched far beyond capacity. The 300-bed hospital, it is now caring for over 700 patients amid critical shortages of fuel and resources.
WHO staff on the ground witnessed the impact of recent violence reported at non-UN food distribution sites, causing influx of injuries at the hospital.
Meanwhile, the hospital is seeing a rise in meningitis cases among children, mostly viral, with some bacterial, but lacks the diagnostic tools to distinguish between the two, complicating treatment and response.
