Red Cross sets up emergency field hospital in Rafah

The International Red Cross says it is opening a field hospital in southern Gaza today to try to meet what it describes as “overwhelming” demand for health services in the city.

Some health clinics have suspended activities while patients and medics have fled from a major hospital as Israel has stepped up its operations in the southernmost Gazan city, where hundreds of thousands have sought refuge.

The ICRC says that staff at the new facility will be able to treat around 200 people a day and can provide emergency surgical care and manage mass casualties as well as provide pediatric and other services.

“Medical staff are faced with people arriving with severe injuries, increasing communicable diseases which could lead to potential outbreaks, and complication related to chronic diseases untreated that should have been treated days earlier,” it says.