The United Kingdom announced, today, a new package of $2.6 million to provide urgently needed medicines and surgical supplies to hospitals in Gaza.
The funding will help keep Gaza’s hospitals functioning as they face increasing demand from the number of trauma patients, as a result of more than 23,000 Palestinians who have been injured since 20 March 2018 during protests at the Gaza border.
Rising demands on hospitals have reduced general access to healthcare, with consistent shortages of medicines and supplies leading to increased rates of infection, and a growing risk of amputations and antibiotic resistance.
The UK embassy in Jerusalem said, according to WAFA, that the new aid package will support the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) to deliver urgently needed surgical equipment, medicines, wound dressing kits, prosthetic limbs and post-surgery physiotherapy. It will also help to provide physical rehabilitation services for up to 3,000 disabled people.
Announcing the new funding, UK International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said, “The UK is deeply concerned by the crisis in Gaza and the pressure it is putting on hospitals, which are now near breaking point. The UK aid funding announced today will help treat the growing number of emergency patients and provide urgently needed medicines, surgical supplies and rehabilitation.”
“UK aid has helped prevent the spread of disease, and given people access to healthcare, clean water and sanitation. It [the UK] also recently provided a package of emergency food supplies for more than 62,000 Palestinian refugees at risk of going hungry,” he added.
