Though border remains closed to casualties, health facilities prepared in Sheikh Zuwayed, Rafah for Gaza’s wounded

Egypt is setting up field hospitals and triage facilities in North Sinai to treat patients wounded in Israel’s ongoing assault on the Gaza Strip.

Infrastructure to support some of the tens of thousands of injured Palestinians is being put together in neighboring North Sinai as the health system collapses in the coastal enclave, where 2.3 million residents have been deprived of access to vital resources, including fuel, water, food and medicines, since Israel launched its assault on October 7.

Since then, over 5,791 people have been killed and more than 16,297 injured.

Access from Gaza to Egypt via the Rafah border crossing has remained closed throughout the war, with four Israeli airstrikes targeting the facilities over the first two weeks and strict conditions from Israel constraining aid deliveries and allowing only three shipments of aid, 54 trucks in total, to enter the strip thus far since October 21.

But now, a triage tent is being prepared at the border, along with two field hospitals and a convoy of ambulances in North Sinai primed to handle casualties.

A field hospital will be erected behind the Sheikh Zuwayed Central Hospital in North Sinai, according to a Tuesday statement published by the Sheikh Zuwayed City Council. The city’s hospital has been equipped with medical staff and devices for operations, critical care, and for “if the wounded from the Gaza Strip are allowed to enter to receive treatment,” said the statement.

Another hospital at Rafah is also being prepared, said a source in the North Sinai branch of the Egyptian Red Crescent who spoke to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity. An area has been allocated next to Rafah’s Masoura School, said the source, and is intended to be the first medical point to receive casualties incoming from Gaza through the Rafah crossing.

Bulldozers have been paving the area surrounding the Masoura School since the first day of the war in Gaza, said local sources and eyewitnesses speaking to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity, and the school has been surrounded by barbed wire. Military vehicles are stationed nearby.

A third field hospital is due to be established in Bir al-Abd city, according to the Red Crescent source, who clarified that its location has not yet been specified.

A triage tent has been established at the Rafah border crossing, said undersecretary to the Health Ministry in North Sinai Tarek Shouka, and is set to receive the wounded, assess the severity of their injuries and transfer them to hospitals in North Sinai and neighboring governorates accordingly using 150 North Sinai ambulances. 

A Health Ministry committee has been in Arish for days, said the Red Crescent member. The  committee has worked to designate medical staff at hospitals in Arish and Sheikh Zuwayed who will be sent to work in the field hospitals.

Additional support is also set to come from medical delegations from abroad. Turkish ambassador to Cairo Salih Mutlu Sen arrived in North Sinai on Monday accompanied by a medical delegation, with the governorate statement describing plans for the two countries to work together to receive and treat injured Palestinians.

The delegation arrived on a Turkish plane and are set to stay in Arish, said a North Sinai Governorate official speaking to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity. The plane carried 20 tons of humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip, 20 doctors and 20 power generators.

Hospitals in the Gaza Strip are in a state of “complete collapse,” said Gaza’s Health Ministry Spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra in a Tuesday afternoon statement. Though hospital doors remain open, it “does not mean that they are providing service to the flood of wounded people flowing into them,” he added.

He called on Egypt to open the Rafah border crossing to allow fuel and medical aid into Gaza and for the sick and wounded to leave for treatment.