Red Cross sets up emergency field hospital in Rafah

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and partners are opening a field hospital in southern Gaza to meet what is described as an "overwhelming" demand for health services since Israeli forces started their operations in Rafah last week.

"People in Gaza are struggling to access the medical care they urgently need due, in part, to the overwhelming demands for health services and the reduced number of functioning health facilities," the ICRC said.

Several health clinics have suspended activities and medical personnel at the Kuwaiti hospital in Rafah received an evacuation order from the Israeli army on Monday.

"Medical staff are faced with people arriving with severe injuries, increasing communicable diseases which could lead to potential outbreaks, and complications related to chronic diseases untreated that should have been treated days earlier," the organisation added.

Only a third of Gaza’s 36 hospitals and 30 percent of primary healthcare centres are functional in some capacity, according to the WHO.