Hamas, Israel agree on Gaza hospital, vexing Shtayyeh
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh and his Cabinet are opposed to a Gaza Strip hospital proposed by Israel and the United States, but may not have much of a say in the matter.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Palestinian government in the West Bank is rejecting plans for a new field hospital in the Gaza Strip — plans that it considers part of a US-Israeli conspiracy to thwart a Palestinian reconciliation.
The project, however, appears to be proceeding anyway. It is part of understandings reached in Egyptian-mediated talks between Israel and Palestinian factions in Gaza, mainly Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. An international medical and administrative team will run the large field hospital, which will include 16 wards and modern equipment. The hospital will have several departments for internal medicine and pediatrics, in addition to a maternity ward, but mostly it will focus on diagnosing patients with life-threatening diseases, mainly cancer. Surveying has begun on 10 acres of land near the Erez border crossing.
Giant tents and equipment are being moved to Gaza from a field hospital in Syria, where the facility has been operated by a US nongovernmental organization, according to a previous Al-Monitor story.
During its weekly session July 8, the Palestinian government said, “The hospital that Israel and the US are seeking to establish on the northern border of the Gaza Strip is part of ongoing attempts to separate the Gaza Strip and the West Bank under humanitarian pretexts."
