10%

ONE YEAR ON:

Maternity care against the odds

By UK-Med

October 9^th, 2026

From Al Mawasi in the south up to Gaza City in the north lies the Al-Rasheed Road – forming the main artery to connect the Strip. Down it funnels everything you could possibly imagine; huge haulage trucks delivering supplies, children everywhere, donkeys, cars riddled with bullet holes, stray cats chancing their luck.

It hugs the coast tightly, with makeshift tents spilling out on all sides – down toward the beach and inland as far as the eye can see, save for the solitary palm trees. Still somehow standing despite it all.

The journey to Al Tayeb Primary Health Clinic (PHCC), several kilometres north of Gaza City, means an early start, before traffic and activity engulf the road. Already, there’s queues of people waiting expectantly with jerry cans to fill from the water trucks, which deliver water around 06:00 AM each day. Fights often break out, such is the scarcity of this precious resource.

It takes around three hours to drive less than 15km, owing in part to the state of the roads, but also the air strikes that continue day after day. Movement is carefully planned — and not without delays.

UK-Med opened Al Tayeb PHCC (pictured above) alongside partners in April 2026. It sits as a final outpost among a decimated area. Families have started returning to their homes and, with scant other health provision, it really is a lifeline. Inside, it’s busy already – with maternity, laboratory, pharmacy, dentistry, GP and emergency departments and a trauma stabilisation point.

NURSE ASMA

We meet Asma, 37, who lives nearby. She chose to stay when her family left for Deir al-Balah. They are afraid to return to their home near the yellow line; even her father believes it is too dangerous.

‘I will never leave this place, until the last person leaves; I will be the last one.’

Her house is destroyed, like many in this area, so she lives in a school building with other community members. Before the current conflict, she worked as an emergency department nurse in the Kamal Adwan Hospital. Now, her primary role is to assess and screen children arriving at the facility, while offering support and advice to their mothers and care givers. Malnutrition is still a big problem. Although the availability of food has improved in the past year, it’s difficult to ensure a consistent supply of the right nutrients – for children and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers.

As of September 2026, the facility has managed 472 cases, including 434 cases of Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM) and 38 cases of Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM). Of these, 55 patients successfully recovered.

Asma's message to the outside world is simple: the situation in Gaza is not helping us, please help us.

DR. REEMA

Dr Reema is the obstetrician in charge at Al Tayeb. Despite being repeatedly displaced, she remains committed to her patients, travelling to the clinic by bus every day — a round trip that can take up to four hours.

She explains that many women using the service experience complications and high-risk pregnancies, which she links to their proximity to the yellow line and the associated effects of living under fire. High blood pressure and gestational diabetes are particularly common. Since April 2026, the facility has recorded 331 high-risk pregnancies.

Asked about a case that has stayed with her, Dr Reema recalls delivering a baby girl during an emergency birth inside an ambulance. The baby was stabilised and taken to the nearest hospital.

Her concerns extend beyond the patients she sees. She describes the compounding health effects of unsanitary living conditions, including skin diseases and infections associated with flies. Upper respiratory tract infections that would usually clear within a week are now taking three weeks to resolve.

LIGHT AND SHADE

Back at the Al Mawasi field hospital, the maternity department is similarly fit to bursting.

We meet a new mother cradling her newborn girl, Sidra, among the other pregnant and new mums. It is very hot. The shading above the maternity clinic providing a darker but no less sweltering space to wait before consultation with one of the midwives. She was worried that her daughter barely opened her eyes after 12 days in the big, wide world.

After assessment by the UK-Med team, all was deemed to be well. The problem, they concluded, was simply the fact Dooua’s child had been in a dark tent since birth, owing to the lack of electricity and her instinct to keep her baby shaded from the powerful sun at this time of year.

How do you explain that is not normal for your first crucial weeks on this planet to be entirely devoid of light? Not because there isn’t enough – but because you are forced to sit inside a tent, surrounded by what’s left of your belongings, having fled home more times that memory serves.

Brushing aside the tent flap to the maternity department, eight beds sit before you. Babies babbling. Fans whirring sluggishly. 22-year-old Shahed is in the corner bed, accompanied by her sister and holding her first child Iman; sharing a name with his father and father-in-law.

He was born by c-section 16 days ago but sadly Shahed has been readmitted as an in-patient. Fortunately, it’s nothing serious but her stitches quickly became infected after returning home. It was virtually impossible to keep her dressings clean, sharing a tent with nine other family members in temperature approaching 40 degrees Celsius in recent days.

Living standards are desperate for Palestinians. Of the approximately 2.2 million people on the Gaza Strip, 90% are internally displaced and 80% live in temporary shelters. As we approach a year since the ceasefire was announced, the situation remains largely the same for the population – with the majority unable to return home and little sign of reconstruction.

UK-MED IN GAZA

The health system in Gaza is still under extreme pressure with continued casualties, damaged infrastructure, and critical supply shortages. UK-Med is operational across four sites, Type 1 Field Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Type 2 Field Hospital in Al Mawasi, Al Tayeb PHCC, and the emergency department within Nasser Medical Complex – totalling 1.3 million patient consultations since January 2024.

We are committed to stay to meet the evolving needs of the population.

In September, a new operating theatre opened at the Type 2 Field Hospital and work continues to expand and refurbish the facility. After 2.5 years of heavy usage, the temporary structures have been baked by summer sun and battered by winter storms. This will also include a new Maternity Unit – for pregnant and new mothers, and their babies.

None of this would be possible without the dedication and expertise of our national staff. Every single person has experienced untold and unimaginable loss of their own. Nowhere is safe – and yet, care continues.