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Rafah in dire need of central hospital

Activists have begun a campaign calling for construction of a bigger hospital in Gaza's Rafah, where the only hospital has been unable to meet the needs of the residents in times of peace and war.
A Palestinian employee inspects damages at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, after the building was shelled by the Israeli army on July 21, 2014, killing five people and wounding at least 70. World efforts to end two weeks of deadly violence in and around Gaza stepped up a gear as the UN chief arrived in Cairo and the top US diplomat was awaited. AFP PHOTO / MOHAMMED ABED        (Photo credit should read MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images)
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RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Amer Muqayyad can still remember how his wounds bled for more than an hour at the Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah. He was not given a chance to be treated by the doctors. 

“I was injured by an Israeli rocket fragment during the Rafah massacre that occurred during the Israeli war on Gaza [in August 2014]," Muqayyad, 24, told Al-Monitor. "Because the Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital — which is the only hospital in the city — was crowded with wounded and martyrs, I continued to bleed for an hour before a nurse hastily treated me and asked me to leave the hospital immediately to make room for other patients.”

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