More UAE medical volunteers head to Gaza to treat wounded Palestinians at field hospital

A total of 35 doctors and nurses will care for the injured in besieged enclave

A fourth batch of UAE medical volunteers will treat injured Palestinians at the field hospital in Gaza. Photo: Wam

More medical workers have left the UAE for Gaza to help treat Palestinians injured in the continuing conflict with Israel.

Seven volunteers make up the fourth batch who will join other doctors and nurses to care for the injured.

It brings the total number of UAE medical volunteers to 35, after nine volunteers were flown to Gaza last week.

In the past two weeks, the UAE's field hospital in the Gaza Strip has tended to more than 443 patients, offering treatment from first-aid to life-saving surgery, state news agency Wam reported.

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

It 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.

Israel launched its attacks after the Hamas militant group that rules Gaza killed about 1,200 people and took more than 200 hostages in raids on southern Israel on October 7.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says Israel's response has killed more than 20,000 people, mostly women and children.

A sixth special flight carrying dozens of patients and their companions landed in Abu Dhabi early on Tuesday.

The plane was carrying 61 people "in the most urgent need of medical assistance, accompanied by 71 members of their families", Wam reported.

The patients were brought for treatment to hospitals in Abu Dhabi, including Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City.

UAE medical flight sets off to collect Gaza patients – in pictures

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