What is it about?
This publication explains how medical points—small, quickly set-up health posts—helped provide urgent care to people in Gaza when hospitals were damaged, overcrowded, or unreachable during the war. It shows how these points worked, the challenges they faced, and the role they played in keeping basic healthcare available under extreme conditions.
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Photo by Matthew Stephenson on Unsplash
Why is it important?
During the war in Gaza, most of population were forced to concentrate in empty areas with no infrastructure—no clinics, no clean water, no electricity. In these settings, medical points became the only places where families could find urgent care, basic medicines, or even reassurance. Their importance comes from filling a life-saving gap when formal hospitals were unreachable or destroyed. Understanding their role shows both the courage of health workers and the urgent need to support these fragile structures in crisis zones.
Perspectives
Medical points have always played a vital role in sustaining Gaza’s fragile health system. They have shown remarkable resilience—opening and closing in response to security threats, continuous attacks, and severe shortages. What we are witnessing now goes far beyond resilience. Under direct bombardment and total deprivation of medical supplies, even their existence is at risk. The only real solution is to stop this war—to protect not only Gaza’s health system, but also the moral and humanitarian foundations of our world.
Ali Alshawwaf
Al Azhar University - Gaza
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Resilience amid chaos: The role of Gaza medical points, PLOS Global Public Health, September 2025, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0005073.
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