21 August 2025
Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) warns of an even greater health and humanitarian catastrophe as Israel intensifies its military assault on Gaza City, forcing the closure of lifesaving health services and triggering a new wave of mass forced displacement.
On 19 August 2025, Ard El Insan (AEI), one of MAP’s local partners, was forced to shut down its medical point in the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City after a night of relentless Israeli military shelling, airstrikes, and drone fire. The medical point had been providing essential nutritional support for children and women facing starvation, and its closure comes as 269 Palestinians, including 112 children, have died from starvation.
Shireen Halasa, who worked at the medical point, said: “It was a terrifying night. The shelling did not stop for a single moment. My heart almost stopped. We were treating around 100 children daiy, many suffering from severe malnutrition, but we were forced to close while running for our lives.”
“People need us now more than ever, but we have no choice but to suspend services. I have been displaced so many times, and I am exhausted. I was displaced to the south at the beginning of the war, then returned to the north during the temporary ceasefire. Anyone who has experienced it knows there is no safety anywhere.”
The closure of the medical point comes as health facilities in southern Gaza are overwhelmed by the growing numbers of patients fleeing Gaza City and the wider Gaza Governorate (home to almost a million people), as they fear a full-scale invasion of the area by the Israeli military.
At MAP’s Solidarity Polyclinic, further south in Deir al-Balah, staff have reported a sharp increase in patients displaced from Gaza City, with daily caseloads rising from an average of 285 to nearly 340.
Maram Al Shurafa, MAP’s Medical Programme Lead, said: “Over the past two days, we have noticed an increase in the number of patients forcibly displaced from the Zeitoun and Sabra areas [in the Gaza Governorate] which are currently being invaded by the Israeli army. Cases of skin infections linked to the extreme heat and poor life conditions, have become more frequent, and most importantly, demand has surged for chronic medications that are scarce in the area but which MAP is able to provide.”
MAP’s staff at the clinic also report that tents are now being set up around the clinic, reflecting the number of people who have been driven from their homes and the increased demand for already strained services.
Angham Al-Nairab, a receptionist at the Solidarity Polyclinic, said: “One of the most moving situations we face every day is when patients arrive with tattered ID cards they’ve managed to pull from under the rubble. Sometimes we struggle to make out their information to register them, and sometimes they arrive having taken nothing with them, telling us they fled south without any belongings.”
Inside Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City – which used to be Gaza’s largest hospital – conditions are dire. Patients in intensive care are receiving as little as 0–500 calories per day as Israeli authorities continue to deliberately block food and medical supplies from entering Gaza.
It is likely that the entire population of Gaza City will soon have their already limited access to healthcare disrupted or destroyed entirely. There are only 11 hospitals that remain partially functioning in Gaza City. Among them are Al Shifa, Al Sahaba, and the Patient’s Friends Benevolent Society (PFBS) – all supported by MAP. PFBS and Al Sahaba host the only two neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) in northern Gaza, both of which were established by MAP. These NICUs are now the last hope for hundreds of newborn babies.
In addition to its hospital support, MAP is working with 25 medical points across Gaza City. These facilities are providing critical services despite being at constant risk of attack, displacement, and supply shortages. Without urgent protection and support, these lifelines for civilians will cease to exist.
MAP stresses that the intensified offensive in Gaza City is accelerating Israel’s genocide and Gaza’s descent into famine, disease, mass forced displacement, and the annihilation of healthcare services.
We urgently call on world leaders, including those in the UK, to enforce an immediate and permanent ceasefire, and pressure Israel to lift its total blockade of Gaza. We demand that the UK and other states uphold their legal duty to prevent and stop genocide, including by suspending arms transfers to Israel and supporting international accountability.
