Aid group opens new field hospital in central Gaza

A new field hospital is opened in the Gaza Strip by the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) organization, in coordination with the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COCGAT) unit of the Defense Ministry and the IDF, COGAT says.

The agency says the new field hospital, located in the central city of Deir al-Balah, is the 13th such facility to be established since the outbreak of war in Gaza following Hamas’s October 7 invasion and massacres.

According to COGAT, the hospital is expected to expand from a capacity of 20 beds to some 110 beds and will include an emergency room, a maternity ward, and a surgical ward.

COGAT says the humanitarian mission to establish the field hospital was “coordinated under the direction and approval of Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant.”

The new MSF field hospital is the second such facility it has opened in less than a month, having established one also in Deir Balah at the end of August.

The organization, which is highly critical of Israel, said at the time that “field hospitals are not a solution, only a last resort,” and that they are designed to support larger, permanent hospitals, many of which have ceased operations in Gaza due to the fighting.

“Without an immediate and sustained ceasefire there can be no meaningful humanitarian response,” MSF said at the end of August.