The United Arab Emirates is to set up a field hospital in the Gaza Strip, official media said after the number of people killed in Israeli bombardments passed 10,000.
Five aircraft flew out of Abu Dhabi for Arish in northern Egypt carrying equipment and supplies for the 150-bed facility, WAM news agency said late Monday.
An official contacted by AFP said there was no immediate information on how the equipment will be transferred to Gaza, where there is only one operational border point, the Rafah crossing near Arish.
The hospital’s facilities will include anaesthetics and surgery, gynaecology and intensive care units “catering to both children and adults”, WAM said.
Some 4,000 children are among the 10,000 who have died in the bombings so far, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said on Monday.
The war erupted when Hamas militants crossed from Gaza into southern Israel on October 7, killing some 1,400 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials.
In retaliation, Israel has unleashed relentless strikes and sent in ground troops with the aim of crushing the militants in the Gaza Strip.
The United Arab Emirates, a wealthy Gulf monarchy, broke with Arab tradition to establish ties with Israel in the 2020 Abraham Accords agreements.
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Dozens killed as Gaza’s largest refugee camp hit by Israeli air strike targeting ‘Hamas terrorists’
Dozens killed as Gaza’s largest refugee camp hit by Israeli air strike targeting ‘Hamas terrorists’
It has previously announced plans to bring about 1,000 Palestinian children and their families from the Gaza Strip for treatment at UAE hospitals.
Meanwhile, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, began a five-day visit to the Middle East on Tuesday to engage with government officials and civil society on the human rights violations taking place amid Israel’s escalation in Gaza.
“It has been one full month of carnage, of incessant suffering, bloodshed, destruction, outrage and despair,” Turk said in a statement. “Human rights violations are at the root of this escalation and human rights play a central role in finding a way out of this vortex of pain.”
Turk is in Cairo on Tuesday and will visit Rafah, located on the border with Gaza, on Wednesday, before he travels to the Jordanian capital of Amman on Thursday, his office said.
Additional reporting by Reuters