More UAE medical volunteers head to field hospital in Gaza

Nine healthcare workers left the Emirates on Sunday

A third batch of UAE volunteers travelled to the Gaza Strip to provide Palestinians with medical treatment and care. Wam

More medical workers have left the UAE for Gaza to help people injured by the conflict with Israel.

Nine volunteers make up the third batch who will join other doctors and nurses to care for Palestinians.

In the past two weeks, the UAE's field hospital in the Gaza Strip, which has 150 beds, has treated 291 cases from first aid and medication to surgery and intensive care, state news agency Wam reported.

The hospital was opened on December 2 as part of the Gallant Knight 3 humanitarian operation ordered by President Sheikh Mohamed.

Medical staff boarding a UAE plane headed for Al Arish, Egypt, from Abu Dhabi International Airport. All photos: Pawan Singh / The National

The plane will bring back cancer patients and wounded people for treatment in the Emirates

The aircraft has been fitted with hospital beds

The UAE has committed to providing free medical care for 1,000 injured children and another 1,000 Palestinians with cancer

Doctors and nurses from local hospitals volunteered to be part of the operation

The hospital includes operating rooms equipped to perform general, paediatric, and vascular surgery, as well as intensive care rooms for adults and children, an anaesthesia department, and specialised clinics including internal medicine, dentistry, orthopaedics, psychiatry, family medicine, paediatrics, and gynaecology.

The hospital can also carry out computed tomography (CT) and X-ray scans, has a pharmacy and a laboratory.

This week, the UAE began work at the first of three desalination plants it is building on the Mediterranean coast on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border to send potable water into Gaza.

The UAE plants are expected to provide 300,000 Gazans with treated water daily.

While that alone is not enough, it is an important step in relieving the suffering of Palestinians after Israel largely cut water, electricity and food supplies to the enclave after the Hamas attack on October 7.

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