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FACES OF SHEIKH RADWAN

Our partnership and expansion in Gaza City

By UK-Med

February 25^th, 2026

There’s a long but orderly queue outside. Women and babies and grandmas and aunts and friends – young children running in circles, dust spooling on the forecourt as they wait in front of Sheikh Radwan PHCC.

Once a fully functioning hospital, a health facility has occupied these grounds since the late 1970s, Dr Ayman, Sheikh Radwan's Director, tells us. He oversees what remains of the facility, cajoling staff gently as he walks the corridors. Out the back lies the remnants of a previously busy A&E department, reduced to rubble and pieces of contorted steel (image above).

To the right of this sits the charred skeleton of the Ministry of Health warehouse, now home to a small, tented encampment on the proviso two temporary roofs are better than one during the recent winter storms. The entire structure looks sure to collapse inward before we know it. A precarious - but necessary - living situation.

Rebuilding Hope, Restoring Care

Since November 2025, UK-Med has been rebuilding the facility and reinstalling equipment in collaboration with the World Health Organization, helping staff bring services back online. The clinic is operating well below its former capacity, but it can now see between 1,000 and 2,000 patients each day. With no other functional clinics in the area, many people are forced to travel from further north to access care.

Inside, several departments are up and running – ready to greet the line that awaits. Today marks the final day of a 10-day vaccination campaign designed to catch up on routine immunisations missed during the war, including measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), tuberculosis, and polio. The campaign is a vital step to protect young children and babies from disease, particularly after months of poor nutrition that have left many especially vulnerable — harm that cannot be reversed simply by the arrival of food.

According to the UN, approximately 1 in 5 children missed their vaccinations over the past two years. This round aims to reach children under the age of three, strengthening protection against vaccine-preventable diseases following two years of conflict and disruption to health services.

Dr Ayman

Hospital Director, Dr Ayman, has worked as a GP for 26 years. During the recent conflict, he was displaced eight times — from Gaza City to Deir al-Balah to Rafah, back to Deir al-Balah then Gaza City again. His home in Jabalia is demolished; there is nothing to return to. He lives with his wife and children - two boys and a girl – in a rented apartment, 600 USD each month with blackened walls. Even this is more than many can manage. For some families, there is no rental option at all.

While we speak a drone strikes roughly 500m behind us, hitting the police station and killing 10 people (31 January 2026). Others assumed dead, trapped underneath.

Faces of the staff etched with worry lines once again, a quiet pause. Casualties are taken to nearby Al Shifa Hospital, where they can be treated at the emergency department. What’s left of Sheikh Radwan’s Emergency Department is a pile of concrete behind the main entrance – rendered obsolete during the final incursion into Gaza City.

Dr Ayman wishes for peace, wishes to rebuild his family home.

Dr Eman

This is the Head of Pharmacy, Dr Eman, who has worked here since 2009. Her husband and four children – Janan, Ahmad, Abud, and Misk – used to live in Jabalia, too. Their home met the same fate. She explains her work was completely different before the current conflict, with readily available medication supplied through UNWRA and a central, automated system for prescriptions. Almost zero mistakes, she proudly states.

Both the pharmacy and adjacent stock room were extensively damaged immediately prior to the ceasefire.

Currently, stock depletion is at critical levels despite recent easing of the blockade, regularly running out of painkillers and antibiotics. There is also a serious lack of medication to treat chronic conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes; life-threatening if not receiving routine medication and check-ups.

UK-Med is supporting the procurement of essential medication, alongside rehabilitation work to the interior and exterior which includes emergency reinforcement of the first-floor using steel support beams, removal of damaged concrete columns, and new windows and doors. Critical steps to ensure the facility is operational — and able to dispense the medication so desperately needed.

DR MOHAMMED

We meet Dr Mohammed, a paediatrician, again from Jabalia. Mothers stand patiently waiting to be seen by him, babies mewling at this injustice. One by one, they filter through, receive vaccinations, signed and stamped in the booklet, and reminded of the next time they should attend.

His wide and expressive smile sets as he begins to tell his story. During an offensive in late 2023, many family members and friends sought shelter in his home. This reached 70 people at one point, spending three days locked inside with no water, food, or electricity. As a medic, he took it upon himself to ensure those arriving injured received some semblance of care. Planks of wood to splint fractured bones; scarves to stem the flow of blood. Amazingly, those in critical conditions survived long enough to receive further treatment.

He continues to explain that a head injury sustained during this time means he sometimes draws blanks, searching for the words to describe his experience. Blocked, perhaps, out of necessity to continue living in the present.

Dr Mohammed is still smiling – until he isn’t. He stands up, apologises, opens the window of the clinic we where we sit and looks out. We pause, he returns to the seat and insists we go on. For him, it's the patients that motivate this desire to continue working.

GHALIA AND SAHAR

Eight-day-old Sahar is the picture of contentment in her mother Ghalia’s arms, with her grandmother looking on. She is Ghalia’s first child, born six months after her husband was killed. Before he died, he chose her name. In Arabic, Sahar means ‘dawn’ — the quiet moment just before sunrise, when night begins to give way to light.

Today, three generations are here for Sahar’s first set of vaccinations. Her grandfather was sent ahead to ensure the clinic had space and availability, returning to the family to share the good news.

After receiving her doses, she is carefully checked over by Dr Mamoud (GP at Sheikh Radwan PHCC), and Dr Clare Frost (UK-Med GP). Baby Sahar is declared healthy and well - a small triumph given the circumstances of her birth.

WHAT'S NEXT

Access and logistics constraints continue to undermine progress, with facilities entirely reliant on generators that are frequently inoperable due to shortages of fuel and spare parts. As of 23 February, just 260 of 619 health service points across the Gaza Strip were functioning — and 90 per cent of those only partially.

One-off deliveries of stock cannot sustain health provision for the population amid persistent insecurity. Essential medicines, trauma supplies, laboratory reagents, vaccines and chronic disease treatments are rapidly depleted, leaving clinicians sadly forced to ration care, delay procedures and turn patients away.

The need is especially acute in Gaza City and the North Gaza Governorate, where UK-Med, in partnership with the World Health Organization, is working to open a new Primary Health Centre in Al Tayeb.

While many staff and patients tread the well-worn path to rebuilding their lives, so too does the health system. Obstacles are numerous and large — but Sheikh Radwan stands as proof that, even in current conditions, meaningful, life-saving care is still possible.

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